With the release of her new album, ‘In Love And Light’, rising Irish folk starlet Heidi Talbot is truly set to shine. Already well known to US audiences as lead singer with the Irish-American super-group Cherish the Ladies, and following wide critical acclaim for her previous solo outing, 2004's ‘Distant Future’, Talbot now extends her talents over a broader, bolder musical canvas, in company with a stellar cast of guests.

AN ARTIST WHOSE TIME HAS COME: After years of paying dues on the margins, Heidi Talbot could be thrust into the spotlight when word spreads about the quality of her latest album.

From the Scottish traditional ballad 'Glenlogie' to the vintage Ink Spots hit 'Whispering Grass'; Tom Waits' bittersweet classic 'Time' to an old parlour hymn, 'When They Ring The Golden Bells', ‘In Love and Light’ draws from the full, diverse spectrum of influences that inform Talbot's exquisitely expressive, honeyed yet ardent singing. Complemented here by the likes of Eddi Reader, ex-Solas guitarist John Doyle, fiddler John McCusker and flute/whistle ace Mike McGoldrick, it's a voice that's drawn comparisons as varied as Norah Jones and Alison Krauss, Lucinda Williams and Mindy Smith, but which could only have emerged from Talbot's own particular talents and background.

Growing up in the rural village of Kill, County Kildare, Talbot sang in the church choir run by her mother, Rosaleen, meanwhile absorbing the vibrant array of music that filled the family home. Whatever the style, Talbot always knew she was born to sing. At 16, Talbot enrolled at Dublin's celebrated Bel Canto singing school, studying for the next year and a half under its founder and director Frank Merriman - "the best teacher in the universe," according to Sinead O'Connor, another former student.

Perhaps the pivotal juncture of Talbot's early career, though, was when she moved to New York aged 18 - despite her total lack of any defined plan in doing so. "Myself and my brother went over: I'd just finished my exams, and he was sick of his job, so we decided we'd go off somewhere, and he picked New York," she says. "We took a thousand dollars between us, and booked a cheap hotel for three nights, thinking that would be fine to get ourselves sorted with jobs and an apartment - we had no clue at all."

And yet, thanks to a hefty dollop of good fortune - within three days she had indeed landed a job, singing in a wedding band, complete with a place to stay in Long Island. "It really was pure luck," she says now. "I don't know what would have happened otherwise - I guess we'd just have had to come back. I'd probably be in an Irish country and western band now!"