From "Dirty Linen" issue #103, December 2002/January 2003:

"Finishing up this month's survey back in England, there's the folk-rocking Southampton quartet Mary Jane. On the group's fourth disk, "To The Prettiest One" [Seventh Wave Records 7W002CD (2002)], lead singer (and fiddle and wind instrument player) Jo Quinn evokes memories of Annie Haslam of Renaissance as her soprano soars high on rocking original songs that often have a slightly medieval feel.

The inclusion of the Latin hymn “Deus Meus”, sung unaccompanied by Quinn, certainly contributes to that impression.

There's a lot of electric and acoustic guitar and bouzouki here, and while the focus is on the distinctive compositions of Quinn and guitar/bouzouki player Paul Alan Taylor, the disk also includes some successfully innovative interpretations of traditional songs like “Three Maidens” (with an angrily buzzing guitar) and “Bruton Town” (with a resonating electric bouzouki), as well as a couple richly-layered reel sets for a change of pace."

By Tom Nelligan