She is a living link between Billie Holiday and Amy Winehouse, according to Uncut Magazine, and is often described as the greatest female vocalist that Ireland has ever produced, standing alongside some of the world’s most iconic jazz singers. She is unique in blending whisky-blurred, smoke-seared, husky notes with the laconic wit of Billie Holiday and Peggy Lee. She draws the line of deep, down and dirty blues singers back to Bessie Smith with the sardonic, bitter-sweet defiance and despair of Edith Piaf. Yet Mary Coughlan delivers it all in a delicious and unapologetic Irish drawl: sceptical, rueful, mournful and melting and ardent for love.