Sarah McQuaid: News

I’ve just returned from the longest tour I’ve ever done: 8 weeks in the USA, taking in the whole country in a great big circle that started and finished in Austin, Texas, via 37 of the 50 states.

What was nice this time round was the opportunity to perform in so many different settings. For example, at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, I did a televised midday concert and then went round to various patient areas as part of their Music at the Bedside programme; and straight after that I did a four-day run of shows in Lincoln, Nebraska, that included an outdoor concert in a park that closed out their season and was attended by over 350 people, plus a visit with 120 nine- and ten-year-olds in a local school. I told them a bit about myself and did a couple of songs for them to sing along to, and for the rest of the hour they just bombarded me with questions – which included a query as to whether there were any kiwi birds in Cornwall!

Another new experience in Lincoln was a ‘Nine Lessons and Ballads’ church service. It was promoter Lori McAlister’s idea to put together a programme modelled after the Nine Lessons and Carols, only with songs from my repertoire (both traditional and original) and readings that echoed or developed the themes touched on in the songs. It was a beautiful evening of music and readings, and I’d love to try and do the same sort of thing elsewhere.

You can read all about my USA experience, and look at route maps and loads of photos, in the Tour Diary.

Now I’m enjoying a much-needed few days at home before I set off on my 4-week UK tour -- see dates listed on the Calendar page.

Hope to see you at a gig down the road ....

It’s been a busy summer! In June I spent two weeks in Ireland finishing off my new album. There’s one day of mixing still to be done, which I have to leave in the extremely capable hands of my producer, Gerry O’Beirne, and engineer Trevor Hutchinson. Having already made two albums with this crack team, I know they’ll do a lovely job of finishing it off in September while I’m on the road, and I hope to have the album ready for release early next year.

Tentatively titled The Plum Tree and the Rose, it’s going to be a bit of a departure from my previous CDs in that the tracks are nearly all originals – three of them co-written with Gerry. To go with all those new songs I’ve got a few very old ones: ‘New Oysters New’, a canon published in 1609 by Thomas Ravenscroft in his Pammelia: Mvsicks Miscellanie, with my old friend Niamh Parsons and baritone Tom Barry singing the other two parts; 16th century Elizabethan composer John Dowland’s ‘Can She Excuse My Wrongs’; and ‘S’Anc Fuy Belha Ni Prezada’, a 13th century “alba” or dawn song in Old Occitan – plus a cover of John Martyn’s ‘Solid Air’.

Back in 2009, when I first came across ‘S’Anc Fuy Belha Ni Prezada’, I went hunting via the Internet for a transcription of the melody and a definitive version of the lyrics. I managed to track down a copy of a book containing them in the collection of one Joseph Baldassarre, professor emeritus at Boise State University. He very kindly scanned in the music and emailed it to me, then sent me a copy of a lovely album he recorded, as an eventual result of which he’s now scheduled to be the opening act at my gig in Boise on the 5th of October! It’ll be great to finally meet and hear him in person after two years of emails back and forth across the pond.

Other highlights of the tour include an official showcase at the Folk Alliance Region Midwest (FARM) conference, as well as a gig at Nashville’s legendary Bluebird Café, where I'll be performing in the round with Louise Mosrie (who also has an official showcase at FARM! Louise was my roommate at the International Folk Alliance Conference last February, and she’s a lovely person and a great songwriter, so I couldn’t be more delighted), Peter Cooper and Ben Bedford. All four of us had No. 1 albums on the Folk DJ chart thanks to the sterling work of Nashville-based PR ace Kari Estrin, who’s promoting the show.

The final bit of news is that while I’m definitely going to continue touring as a solo performer, I’ve put a three-piece band together with an eye on next summer’s festival season. At our second rehearsal (in a friend’s converted barn here in Cornwall), we decided to set a few video cameras up on tripods to capture the band look and sound, and I hope to have the results up on the Music page within the next week or two, so keep an eye out for that!   

Hope to see you at a gig down the road ....

It’s been a very, very busy year thus far – I’ve been touring pretty much nonstop since the end of January, with brief forays home now and again to remind my husband and children who I am, and I won’t get much of any respite until the end of June.

I’m on the road – literally – as I type this, somewhere in Ohio on my way to a gig in Kirtland, near Cleveland. Having acquired a mobile wifi device and a sunshade for my laptop (not needed in today’s rainy weather, but essential on brighter days), I’m now able to catch up with emails and other admin work while Martin does the driving.

After the final date of this US tour, on May 24th (see all the remaining dates at right), I’ll be spending a week in Nashville, working on material for my new album, then heading down to Kerrville, TX to catch a bit of the festival there before I fly back to the UK on the 7th of June.

After that, I’ll have just five nights at home (including a festival gig in Helston, just up the road from where I live) before flying to Ireland on the 12th of June, where I’ll be doing the final recording and mixing work on my new album from the 12th to the 25th.

Speaking of which, I’m looking for a major sponsor to help me with the recording and production costs. If you know of either a business or an individual who might be interested in supporting this project, please do pass on their contact details!

Hope to see you at a gig down the road ....

A wonderful bit of news came in just at the start of this month: My double CD (the two solo albums, released together on the North American market as a two-disc package) came in at No. 6 on the FolkRadio chart for 2010, based on playlists from 195 DJs. Have a look at http://folkradio.org/10topalbums.html -- you'll understand why I was so pleased when you see the company I’m in.

I’m also honoured that Al Kniola and Norm Mast of WVPE’s The Back Porch included the double CD in their 30 Best Albums of 2010, and thrilled that KOPN’s Steve Jerrett listed it in his Top 10 CDs of 2010.

All credit to Gerry O’Beirne for his wonderful production and playing on both of the albums that make up the double CD, as well as to publicist Kari Estrin for her sterling work.

The other big bit of news is that I've been selected for an official Performance Alley Showcase at the 23rd Annual International Folk Alliance Conference in Memphis in February. One of the five largest music conferences in North America, the Folk Alliance draws over 2,000 registered attendees each year. 200 artists are invited for official showcases each year, but of these, only around 20 come from outside the US and Canada, so it’s a great honour for an overseas artist such as myself to be selected. Other artists who will be showcasing in 2011 include Suzy Bogguss, the Carolina Chocolate Drops, Mary Gauthier, Eliza Gilkyson, Kieran Goss, Diana Jones, Si Kahn and Raul Malo.

I had a very intensive 9-week tour of the UK and USA this past autumn, and have barely had time to draw breath since -- so I’m afraid I haven’t had time to update the tour diary as of this writing. I’ll definitely get back to it for the European tour starting next week, though, so keep an eye on it for updates!

We are delighted to announce that Sarah McQuaid has been selected for an official Performance Alley Showcase at the 23rd Annual International Folk Alliance Conference (http://www.folkalliance.org), taking place between 15th & 20th February in Memphis, Tennessee, USA.
 
One of the five largest music conferences in North America, the Folk Alliance draws over two thousand registered attendees each year, including representatives of venues, festivals, record labels, broadcast and print media, agents and performers.
 
Two hundred artists are invited for official showcases each year, but of these, only around twenty come from outside the US and Canada, so it's a great honour for an overseas artist such as Sarah McQuaid to be selected. Other artists who will be showcasing in 2011 include such high-profile names as Suzy Bogguss, the Carolina Chocolate Drops, Mary Gauthier, Eliza Gilkyson, Kieran Goss, Diana Jones, Si Kahn and Raul Malo.
 
Sarah attended the conference for the first time in 2010, and received several bookings as a direct result of the unofficial "Guerrilla" showcases she performed there.

Among these was an invitation to appear next April on 'Folkstage', a live concert radio show broadcast by Chicago's public radio station, WFMT. The show’s host, Rich Warren, had previously named Sarah's album ‘I Wont Go Home 'Til Morning’ CD of the week on his nationally syndicated show 'The Midnight Special' (http://www.midnightspecial.org/syndication.htm).
 
"I'd written to Rich to thank him for the mention and to ask if he'd book me for Folkstage," Sarah explains, "but he told me he never books anyone for Folkstage until he's seen them perform live. I was well nervous when I clocked him in the audience at one of the unofficial showcases I did last year -- the showcases are in hotel rooms, so it's a slightly bizarre setup -- but thankfully he came straight up to me as soon as I finished, took out his diary and said he'd be delighted to book me.
 
"I'm thrilled that the Folk Alliance have invited me for an official showcase next year," Sarah continues, "because those are in big halls, with stage and lights and PA, and they're much better attended than the unofficial ones. It's a big deal to be selected and I'm very excited about it!"
 
Sarah's Folk Alliance appearance will follow hard on the heels of a twenty one date tour of the Netherlands and Germany in January and February 2011.
 
Immediately following the conference, she'll be travelling to Nashville for meetings with two record labels and a co-writing session with well-known songwriter Thomm Jutz, guitarist and producer for Nanci Griffith amongst others.
 
On her return to her home base in Cornwall, she'll barely have time to draw breath before setting off on a densely packed UK tour that fills the month of March, followed by an Ireland tour in April and a five-week USA tour from late April through early June.

Hello everyone, and Happy Burns Night! Feargal and I attended a terrific celebration hosted by our friends Sarah and Geoff at the weekend, with poems composed for the occasion, some beautiful single malts and delicious haggis – here’s a photo:

CD Baby and Haiti relief
For those of you who don’t already know it, beginning today (Monday, January 25th) and continuing for two weeks, the good people at CD Baby are donating US$1 of their cut from every CD sale, and $1 from every download sale over $8.99, to the American Red Cross and to Mercy Corps, a Portland-based relief organization with a large presence in Haiti. So if you’ve been thinking about buying either my CDs or any of the other excellent albums available through CD Baby (Gerry O’Beirne’s beautiful Half Moon Bay and The Bog Bodies And Other Stories spring to mind), now would be a good time to do that. Visit CD Baby for more info.

Street teamers wanted
I’ll be heading off shortly to do a few UK gigs before I leave for Spain and the USA, and could do with a bit of help getting the word out: the organiser of the London gig, for one, has just emailed me to say that thus far he’s sold a grand total of one ticket! I’d be hugely grateful if you could have a look down through the list of gigs at the end of this email and pass on the info to any friends of yours in the places I’m passing through, if you think they’d like my music. I also have stacks of flyers listing all my upcoming tour dates from February through April, and would be delighted to send a few out in the post to anyone who’s in an area where I’m going to be playing and has a place to put them.

The week after the aforementioned London gig, I’m off to Bilbao, Spain, to perform at the grandly named Palacio de Congresos y de la Música Euskalduna, and straight on from there to the USA. I’ll be attending the International Folk Alliance conference in Memphis from February 16-21, then embarking on a whirlwind tour, playing 20 shows in 23 days.

Double CD
Along with my first-ever solo US tour comes the re-release of my first two albums as a double CD for the North American market. The idea for the double CD package came from Kari Estrin, an amazing woman in Nashville who’s been manager or tour manager in the past for such illustrious names as Janis Ian, Tony Rice, Suzanne Vega and 3 Mustaphas 3. In the short time I’ve been working with her she’s been a real inspiration. She’s looking after the radio publicity for the US release, and will be sending out 550 copies to stations around the country. The two individual albums have already been getting quite a bit of airplay on folk radio programs over there; I was particularly chuffed when I Won’t Go Home ’Til Morning was named “CD of the Week” by WFMT’s The Midnight Special, a show I can remember listening to it as a child in Chicago on New Year’s Eve – the only night of the year I was allowed to stay up late enough to hear it!

Singers wanted
The week after my return from the US, I’m going to be playing a double-bill gig with Cornish band Dalla at Grampound Community Hall in Cornwall ... which leads me to mention that I’m still looking for fellow singers to join me for ‘In Gratitude I Sing’, the canon I debuted at that same gig back in March 2009. On that occasion, members of Dalla and fellow Cornwall-based band Corncrow bravely volunteered to sing it with me, despite the fact that I’d written the song that afternoon and had only five minutes to rehearse it with the others before the show. Now anyone who wants can download the sheet music and MIDI file from my website, so there’s no excuse for not giving it a go. If you’re coming to any of my gigs over the next year or two and fancy joining me onstage, please do look it up!

New album
The new recording is still being tweaked and twiddled as I write. Máire Breatnach came in last week to put a few fiddle and viola tracks down, and thanks to the wonders of technology, I was able to listen to them on the computer less than an hour after she’d left the studio, despite the fact that the studio is in Dublin and I’m in Penzance. They sounded lovely and I can’t wait to hear the finished album, but that’ll have to wait until Gerry and Trevor’s hectic schedules once again leave them with a few free days that coincide, like some rare conjunction of the planets.

New idea
When I recorded my last album, I had a grant from the Arts Council of Ireland, which was a considerable help. Now that I’m living in the UK, I’m a much smaller fish in a much bigger pond, and in any case arts budgets are being slashed left, right and centre.

So I think I’m going to try something new. It’s been suggested to me that I invite people to become sponsors for the new album – helping me out with the recording costs in exchange for various rewards, depending on the amount contributed – for example, a sponsorship credit in the booklet, a concert in your home, signed gifts and memorabilia for you and your friends? This is unfamiliar territory for me, so I’m very much open to advice. If any of you would like to get in touch with me to discuss your thoughts, that would be wonderful.

Hello, all. I hope you had a good summer! Mine was hectic, to say the least, mostly due to the ten days I spent recording my new album in Ireland, the frantic period of preparation that preceded them, and the ensuing frantic period of trying to catch up with all the things I'd let slide while getting material ready for the new album.

It's going to be called The Plum Tree And The Rose, and features six of my own songs (including the title track) together with nine pieces from the 13th-16th centuries. In the latter category are Elizabethan songs and instrumentals as well as songs in Old French, Old Occitan, Italian, Middle High German and Latin. On advice from Joseph Baldassarre (a professor of music history at Boise State University, who very kindly scanned and emailed pages from several books in his collection), I'd taken the precaution of buying Timothy McGee's excellent book and CD set Singing Early Music: The Pronunciation of European Languages in the Late Middle Ages and Renaissance, and it became my bible for the duration of the recording. I can only hope that I've done an adequate job of getting the pronunciation right.

Like my previous two solo recordings, the new album was recorded at Trevor Hutchinson's home studio in Dublin, with Trevor engineering and Gerry O'Beirne engineering. It was lovely to be able to work with the two of them once again, and lovely as well to be able to enjoy the brilliant hospitality provided by Trevor and his wife Frances.

Niamh Parsons, who last recorded with me on my first album When Two Lovers Meet, came along to sing on two tracks: my canon 'In Gratitude I Sing' and the rather earlier 'New Oysters New', written by Thomas Ravenscroft back in 1609. Tom Barry sang on the same two tracks; other guest singers on 'In Gratitude I Sing' included Frances Hutchinson (who was roped in at the last minute after being overheard warbling in the kitchen whilst preparing dinner for the rest of us!), Gerry O'Beirne and Emer Ní Bhrádaigh.

Noel Eccles (of Moving Hearts fame, now principal percussionist with the National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland) arrived with a bewildering array of drums, cymbals and other percussion instruments, which he used to brilliant effect on several tracks.

Repeat guests from I Won't Go Home 'Til Morning included fiddler Rosie Shipley, Trevor Hutchinson on double bass, and of course Gerry O'Beirne on tiple and classical guitar.

And I got to try out a new instrument of my own: a Shruti box made by Stefan Cartwright of Stroud, Gloucestershire (see http://www.shrutibox.co.uk for more info), which we thought worked very well on the Occitan troubadour song 'S'Anc Fuy Belha Ni Prezada' by Cadenet (c. 1160-c. 1235), despite the clash of periods and places!

Amazingly, we managed to finish on schedule at a very civilised 7.30pm on the final day of recording. Here are Gerry, Trevor, myself and Frances raising a glass to celebrate the occasion; unfortunately, all of us except Gerry had our eyes not on the camera but on the antics of Nina -- Frances and Trevor's beautiful and hilarious Irish setter.

I'm not entirely certain when the album will be out, as it hasn't even been mixed as yet, but I imagine that it will be sometime in 2010. Watch this space.

I've had lots of adventures since my last missive, starting with a lovely tour of Ireland in April, where as usual the highlights were all furnished by the people I met along the way.

There was an impressive take-up to my open invitation for concertgoers to join me in singing my canon "In Gratitude I Sing" (for anyone else out there who wants to give it a go, it's still up on the Home page). At my show at St. John's Theatre & Arts Centre in Listowel (to which I'm happy to say I'll be returning the same time next year), fellow guitarist Paul de Grae went way beyond the call of duty: not only did he organise the choir for the canon, he also loaned me his wonderful G7 capo, then made me a present of it at the end of the concert after telling me the story of how Johnny Cash famously gave his guitar to Bob Dylan at the Newport Folk Festival. "I'm not going to give you my guitar," said Paul, "but I will give you my capo." And he did.
On the Photos page, you'll find a snap taken of myself, Paul and the other two members of "the choir" at the pub later that evening, alongside a photo of the prettiest toilet in Ireland (or so I'm told – have a look and judge for yourself!) and a couple of pics from the final night of the tour – a packed triple bill at the Hawk's Well Theatre in Sligo with NoCrows and The Unwanted.

Cathy Jordan (of the Unwanted, and of course also of Dervish) joined me onstage during my set for an a cappella duet on Peggy Lee's "Fever", and the entire ensemble joined forces at the end of the evening for a grand finale.

This latter included the aforementioned canon sung by no less than 13 singers: myself, NoCrows (Felip Carbonell, Steve Wickham, Eddie Lee and Anna Houston), The Unwanted (Cathy, Seamie O'Dowd and Rick Epping) and the four members, plus the conductor, of barber shop quartet Own-A-Chord, who opened the show. For those who weren't there on the night, my entire 45-minute set, incuding the duet with Cathy Jordan, is viewable from start to finish on SligoTV.

In June I had my first-ever gig in Germany, at the Greenfarm Festival near Munich. A superbly run event, where I met up with a few old friends and made some lovely new ones. Now I'm getting ready to set off for various shows around England's midlands before heading over to Ireland, where I'll return to Trevor Hutchinson's Glasnevin studio for the recording of my third solo album, once again with Trevor engineering and Gerry O'Beirne producing.

I'm not a little apprehensive about the trip, as I've had difficulties with driving for the past three months: it appears that a very nasty cold I had in late March (which forced the rescheduling of my planned gig at the Barley Sheaf in Liskeard to September) has left me with inflammation in my ears that's causing me to have attacks of vertigo, particularly when I'm driving. Very scary. I've managed to organise trains for the UK tour, but I'll still have to drive from Cardiff over to Ireland and then around Ireland once I'm there. If you spot a red Berlingo trundling along very slowly and carefully in the outside lane, that'll be me.

On a happier note, Aled Jones played (for the second time!) a track from I Won't Go Home Til Morning on his BBC Radio 2 show in May – "A lovely voice this lady's got", he said. Very nice. I've also recently had airplay on Fiona Ritchie's Thistle & Shamrock, Radio ISW-FM in Germany, Folk Radio UK, Roz Larman's FolkScene, Gene Shay's Folk Show on WXPN, Death Valley Radio, KVMR, KBCS, WFRG, WPSU and several plays on Karen Miller's The Miller Tells Her Tale, which can be heard on podcast as well as on kYouRadio.com and Radio Six International – see www.themillertellshertale.co.uk for more info. Various reviews have been added to the Press page, including a lovely one from the US folk magazine Sing Out! as well as several reviews in Dutch magazines for which Renee Koopman was kind enough to supply English translations.

Listed on the Calendar page are all the upcoming shows I've managed to upload. There are a fair few more still to be added, as I'm struggling to cope with the email avalanche, so do check back in a few months for more – I'm hoping that I can catch up with everything once the new album is recorded!

Calling all singers
A couple of weeks ago, I started writing a song, and realised a few lines into it that it was taking the form of a canon. Luckily, that very evening -- 14 March -- I was playing a double bill with the excellent Cornish band Dalla (www.dalla.co.uk) and managed to recruit three of its members, plus Kim Guy of Cornish duo Corncrow, to give it a whirl. Even with only five of the six parts, it sounded lovely, and I'd really like to keep the song in the set ... so I'll be needing a few more singers to join me! If you're coming to one of my shows and you're able to sing in parts, please do go to my homepage, www.sarahmcquaid.com, where you'll find a link to download the sheet music (small file, quick download) and see if you fancy having a go.

To tweet or not to tweet?
A great big heartfelt thank you to everyone who's sent messages of support, guestbook signatures and comments on my various webpages. I do read everything that comes in, and all those kind words give me a huge lift. I try to write to everyone individually to thank them, but sometimes it's hard to keep up, between MySpace and Facebook and Twitter and Reverbnation and all the rest. I'm a bit bemused and confused by it all, and have just written a "Guest Blog" on the subject for the excellent online folk music magazine Spiral Earth (www.spiralearth.co.uk). It'll also be published in the Musicians' Union "Grass Roots" newsletter, and if you'd like to read it yourself, just click here.

New videos, new pics, new reviews
I've added loads of stuff to the website since the last of these missives went out. There are seven new videos from concerts I did in Holland in February, including my rendition of the three (three!) Dutch birthday songs, plus a great big hootenany when I joined Dutch bluegrass band the Lazy Taters (www.lazytater.nl) for 'Mama Don't Allow'. Lots of new pics (including older ones from March 2008 and November 2008 that I've only just got round to uploading, as well as recent ones from January and February 2009) on the photos page, and some very nice reviews of the new album on the press page. Among these are reviews from Living Tradition, fRoots, FATEA and The Irish Times -- all good, I'm relieved to say! The Mama CD has been getting some amazing reviews as well, from MOJO and Rock'n'Reel among others; click here to read them.

On the airwaves
The CD has been getting airplay in all sorts of places, including the USA's WYSO, WDET, WRFG, KMSU, K-TAOS, Kansas Public Radio, Australia's Spectrum FM and 2MCE-FM, plus assorted stations in the UK and Ireland. Over in the Netherlands, host Berrie Koetsier of 'Songriver' on Omroep  IJsselmond 104.1 FM made my version of 'Ode To Billie Joe' his 'Cover Song Of The Week' in January 2009. The album has also been reviewed in three different Dutch magazines, and I'm looking for translators, please, as my limited Nederlands isn't quite up to the job!

Coming soon to a venue near you
Listed on the calendar page are all the gigs I have coming up. Many, many thanks for all your support, and I hope to meet you at a gig down the road.

I’ve just written a “Guest Blog” for SpiralEarth.co.uk about my bemusement with Twitter and the whole online scenario for musicians in general. Click here to read it if you’re interested!

Hello there! Just a quick note to let you know that I’ve uploaded half a dozen new live concert videos, thanks to one Roy Flitcroft, who made an impressively high-quality recording of my gig at the Perthshire Amber festival in Dunkeld, Scotland, last October and was kind enough to send me a DVD of it. Have a look and let me know what you think.

In other news, no less a personage than Aled Jones made me the subject of his ‘Sunday Spotlight’ on his BBC Radio 2 show Good Morning Sunday last weekend, saying in his intro to ‘Wondrous Love’ that it was “likely to make the hairs stand up on the back of your neck”. If you’re reading this on Saturday the 31st, you’ve still got until tomorrow morning to go to http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio2/shows/goodmorningsun/ontheshow.shtml and click on ‘Listen Again’ to hear it – it’s about an hour and 25 minutes into the show. You’ll find it on the playlist as well, in amongst the likes of Supertramp, The Proclaimers and Bruce Springsteen ...

Over at Mama headquarters we’ve got a bit to crow about as well, having achieved that Holy Grail of independent recording artists, a review in MOJO! Reviewer Colin Irwin gave us three stars and described Crow Coyote Buffalo as “a pleasingly maverick mix” that “recalls both the eccentricity of The Incredible String Band and the pastoral narratives of Lal Waterson.” If you’d like to be on the Mama mailing list, do sign up on www.mamamusic.co.uk.

There are also a couple of changes to the tour schedule sent out previously.

On 22 February at TwickFolk in London, I was originally meant to be playing support to Peter Case, but now that Case is recovering from double heart bypass surgery there’s been a change of plan. Crosby Tyler, a Californian singer-songwriter whose latest album was produced by Case, has taken over Case’s tour dates and the format has now been changed to a double-header, with Crosby and myself each playing a one-hour set and the advance ticket price reduced to £8 from the original £10. Crosby is donating half of his tour proceeds to help meet the extensive costs of Case’s medical treatment, and there will be Peter Case merchandise on sale at the gig in addition to a fundraising raffle.

And there are two new dates added – one in Wadebridge, Cornwall on February 5 and the other in Liskeard, Cornwall, on March 25 – see the CALENDAR page for details!

Until the next time ...

Sarah

A very happy new year to all of you!

The last few months have been busy, to say the least, what with gigs in Holland, Belgium, Ireland and the UK, the release in October of I Won’t Go Home ’Til Morning and most recently the launch of Crow Coyote Buffalo – the debut album from Mama, my new band with fellow singer-songwriter Zoë Pollock. Both CDs have been getting airplay around the globe and brilliant reviews; those of you who are on the Mama mailing list will have already seen the press quotes for that one (if you’re not on the Mama mailing list and would like to be, visit www.mamamusic.co.uk to sign up). Here’s a sampling of what the critics have been saying about I Won’t Go Home ’Til Morning:

“Her singing has shades of Baez minus the operatic warble and Gillian Welch without so much Nashville twang.” – Spiral Earth

“Her own songwriting is beautifully spare ... a melancholy but somehow celebratory collection.” – The Irish Times

“One of those rare things, a very lovely personal album but also an incredibly good introduction to Appalachian folk music. Highly recommended.” – Americana UK

“Quietly expressive and supremely affecting performances ... Not a weak link anywhere in earshot ... This is a truly lovely record.” – NetRhythms

“The depth and warmth of McQuaid’s voice is best sampled on the a cappella ‘The Wagoner’s Lad’, while the hymn ‘Wondrous Love’ is truly spine-tingling ... A touching album from a genuine artist.” – Hot Press

The CD has had airplay on BBC Radio 3’s ‘Late Junction’ and ‘World On 3’, RTE Radio 1, BBC Wales, BBC Ulster, BBC Shropshire, BBC Leeds, BBC Cornwall, BBC Gloucestershire, Blast FM (Reading), AllFM (Manchester) and VRN Radio (Kircaldy) among others. It’s been played on WDIY-FM (Pennsylvania), WFDU-FM (New Jersey) and KMSU (Minnesota); and over in New South Wales, Australia, it was the featured album on Bruce Cameron’s 2MCE-FM show ‘Come All Ye’ on 28 December.

You can read the full text of all the reviews on the PRESS page, where you’ll also find a nice video from my November show at Toogenblik in Brussels. I’ve also put loads of new photos: some great shots of the gig I did at the Seamus Ennis Centre in Navan with Niamh Parsons and Graham Dunne (and a magical evening it was – the three of us did the gig together, with Graham putting some lovely guitar touches on my songs and me harmonising with Niamh where I could); a friendly cuppa with Colum Sands at Groucho’s in Richhill; brandishing a magnificent Halloween pumpkin with Pamela Wyn Shannon at Woodend Barn in Banchory, Scotland; and playing my heart out at the Ards Guitar Festival despite having spent the previous night being violently ill with a tummy bug!

I’m heading off this evening for a short run of gigs in Holland, getting the sleeper train to London and then on to Groningen via Brussels. I’ll be at various locations around the UK in early spring, then heading over to Holland again in February and to Ireland in April. As always, tour dates are listed on the CALENDAR page. Many thanks for your support, and I wish you a happy and healthy 2009!

All the best,

Sarah

The big news for today is that my new album, I Won’t Go Home ’Til Morning – with a 24-page (!) booklet including original cover artwork by the lovely and talented Mary Guinan – is now available to friends and supporters in advance of the 20 October release date.

You can listen to a selection of tracks on the MUSIC page – or just go straight to the BUY page if you’re already sure you want it!

I’m doing a once-off “early bird” deal for anyone who buys the CD directly from my website in the month of its release. Both I Won’t Go Home ’Til Morning and its predecessor can from 1-31 October only be purchased here for the discounted price of Stg £10.00 – including postage to wherever you happen to be, whether that’s Devon, Dublin or Dakar! And if you’d like me to sign the CD with a personal note to you or whoever the intended recipient is, I’ll be delighted and honoured to do so. Christmas is coming ... think stocking stuffers ... and apologies for this foray into blatant commercialism, which I promise will be brief. From the release date on, the CD will be available through the usual outlets of CD Baby, the Proper Music Store on Amazon, and your local record shop (distributed by Proper in the UK, EMD in Ireland and Super D worldwide including the USA). To take advantage of this offer, just click here.

On the 12th of September, Zoë Young and I played our debut gig as the band Mama, with special guests Jarvis and Tiffany of the Rosemarie Band, at the St Ives Theatre as part of the St Ives September Festival. The evening was a resounding success, apart from my purse being stolen from the dressing room while we were on stage; it was later recovered from the toilets, minus cash but with cards still present, thank heavens. Artists and punters alike take note: if it’s not locked, it’s not secure.

We’re now proud to announce the launch of Mama on the web at both www.mamamusic.co.uk and www.myspace.com/mamamusicmyspace.

Do pay us a visit when you have time, and sign up to the mailing list there if you’d like to be kept apprised of Mama news, including the release of our debut CD at the end of November.

I have a fairly full gig schedule in the coming months, and there have been a number of changes in the last few days, so please refer to the updated version on the CALENDAR page. Among the latest additions is a double bill in January with Linde Nijland, a wonderful Dutch singer I met on one of my early forays to Holland. From now until the beginning of December, Linde and her partner (musical and otherwise) Bert Ridderbos are on an amazing-sounding road trip to Bhutan, with plenty of music along the way – keep an eye on http://roadtobhutanmusic.wordpress.com for all the latest news of their journey!

Many thanks for your support – do keep in touch, and feel free to leave comments on either the GUESTBOOK page here or at www.myspace.com/sarahmcquaid (or both!) if the spirit moves you.

Hello, all. The album project with Zoë mentioned in the last of these missives is still going strong -- we're nearly finished recording, and expect to release "Crow Coyote Buffalo" under our band name, Mama, in late November -- watch this space for details of both the album and the Mama website, which is still under construction at the moment.

Contrary to what I told you last time round, my new solo album, "I Won't Go Home 'Til Morning", is now set for release on the 20th October! About time, too. Again, watch this space ....

In the meantime, when I haven't been collaborating with Zoë I've been collaborating with lots of other fascinating and talented individuals.

Soon after my move to Cornwall, my fellow music journo/book author/musician/songwriter Colin Harper got in touch with me to ask if I'd be willing to sing a song on a new album he was making, consisting of his compositions performed by various singers and bands. I jumped at the chance, and thanks to today's technology I didn't even have to travel to Colin's base in Belfast to do it. He emailed the backing track to the Sawmills Studio just up the road from me in Fowey (a most exotic place, accessible only by either a boat or a precarious walk across a railroad bridge, used for recording by the likes of Oasis, Stone Roses, XTC et al -- see www.sawmills.co.uk for more info), and I spent a beautiful afternoon there putting down lead and harmony vocals on Colin's song "Three Syllable Time". The result can now be heard on the new album "Freedom & the Dream Penguin", released under the collective name The Field Mouse Conspiracy. Besides myself, other artists featured include Judy Dyble (ex-Fairport Convention), Alison O’Donnell (ex-Mellow Candle), Peter Wilson (a.k.a. Duke Special), Susie Young, Joe Echo and Tina McSherry, not to mention numerous others -- see www.thefieldmouseconspiracy.com or www.myspace.com/thefieldmouseconspiracy for the full list! If you'd like to hear a sample of "Three Syllable Time", the track on which I sang, click here:
http://cdbaby.com/cd/fieldmouseconspiracy.

In December, I did a double bill with Rob King and Pippa Marland of the excellent trad/jazz outfit Carmina (www.carmina.co.uk) at the Nova Scotia in Bristol. I joined them for four songs at the end of their set, and it went so well that we decided to have another go in June -- same lineup, same venue, but this time I'd sat down with their CD for a proper rehearsal beforehand, so was able to contribute harmony vocals and backing guitar for most of their set. It was such a pleasure to work with them, and I do hope that we can do more together in the months and years to come!

In the lead-up to the Alcester Folk Festival, where I played in June, I spotted a familiar name on the bill -- Mike Agranoff (www.mikeagranoff.com), a musician I'd met years before in New Jersey, where he ran a lovely little folk club called the Minstrel Coffeehouse. I sent him a "remember me?" email and was delighted when he not only replied within minutes, but asked if I'd like to play some backing guitar during his set. We met at the festival, had a frenzied three-minute rehearsal, and I duly joined him on guitar when he played "The Temperance Reel" on the concertina, then trotted back up to sing harmonies on his encore rendition of "The Water Is Wide". It was brilliant fun -- as indeed was the whole of the festival -- and wonderful to be able to renew an old acquaintance.

A few more collaborations are still in the offing. In November I'll be sharing a bill with Holland-based Irish singer/songwrter Danny Guinan (www.dannyguinan.com) at the Theater Karroessel in Geleen, Netherlands, and in December there's a double bill at the Séamus Ennis Centre in Navan with the great Niamh Parsons (www.niamhparsons.com). I've jammed with Danny at his home place in Ferbane, County Offaly, and Niamh was kind enough to duet with me on my first album, so you never know what might happen ....

Meanwhile, the relentless touring continues -- see upcoming dates on my CALENDAR. I've got a wonderful new agent now, Bob Butler -- see the CONTACT page for details -- so don't expect any letup in the near future!

Hello, all. Apologies for the long silence, but it's been a busy time. I was on the road for most of March, first in Holland and then in Ireland, and since my return I've been up to my eyes in a very exciting new project.

Living just a couple of miles up the road from me is a lovely and prodigiously talented woman called Zoë, who had a hit single back in 1991 with a song she wrote called 'Sunshine On A Rainy Day' -- look her up on YouTube and you can see her performing it on 'Top Of The Pops'!

She still has an awe-inspiring knack for coming up with unusual melodies that lodge in the brain and stay there for days on end, but she's not so keen on writing lyrics, which is where I come in.

We've developed a reasonably organised style of working (I've taken to referring to it as "The West Penwith Hit Factory"), whereby she gives me a rough demo, sung mostly in nonsense language with the odd intelligible phrase thrown in, and tells me any thoughts she has about where it might go thematically.

Those thematic ideas frequently send me to the Internet, where I find myself looking up information on all sorts of topics -- the Kathakali dancing tradition of Kerala, the painter Frida Kahlo, the Rider Tarot deck, to name a few. This last item led me in turn to the woman who designed said deck, one Pamela Colman Smith, a fascinating character who was a great friend of William Butler Yeats, illustrated his poetry books and co-edited a literary journal with his brother, the painter Jack Yeats. Interesting stuff.

Thus far we've written twelve songs together, with a half-dozen more nearing completion. We've started work on an album, which we're hoping to release within the next year under the band name Mama (a name we chose in part because we both have small children -- who've become great friends over the past few months!).

Zoë has just finished recording a new and very different version of 'Sunshine On A Rainy Day', more true in style to what she had in mind when she originally wrote the song, with myself on guitar and backing vocals as well as members of the band Thistletown.

Jarvis from Thistletown also plays drum kit, percussion and trumpet on the three Mama songs we've recorded thus far, and we're hoping to entice him out on the road with us when we're ready to tour the finished album.

All this activity has put the release of my own new solo album, 'I Won't Go Home Til Morning', on hold until early next year. However, I'll go ahead and put a few taster tracks up on MySpace as soon as I have the cover artwork to accompany them (Mary, if you're reading this, I hope your paintbrush is at the ready!).

In the meantime, you can hear me performing one of the songs from 'I Won't Go Home Til Morning' live on RTE Radio 1 by clicking here. On the same page is an interview I did on Dutch radio during the Holland tour -- have a listen if you fancy a laugh at my valiant attempts to speak Nederlands! Fortunately for me, the very charming DJ kindly switched over to English after the first few seconds.

There are also some new items on the reviews/articles page, so do check that out as well if you have a spare moment.

In between stints of songwriting and recording, I've been doing the odd gig, including a lovely one the weekend before last at the Sandford Festival near Crediton, Devon. For the Saturday evening concert, I was honoured to be on a bill with three great singer/guitarists -- Martyn Joseph, Andy Jencara and Kit Hawes -- every one of whom played at least one number in DADGAD, for what it's worth. The sound engineer was none other than Andy Manson, the maker of my beautiful guitar, and he and his wife Debbie not only put me up in their house but made me a present of a gorgeous blue and grey mug made by Debbie, who's a wonderful raku potter. It's been my mug of choice for tea and coffee ever since.

That's all the news for now!

Hello, all. I'm just back from my first-ever tour in Scotland, which was also my first-ever tour with the family in tow ... AND my first-ever tour with my beautiful new guitar, made for me by Andy Manson.

Past clients of Andy’s include such notables as John Paul Jones and Jimi Page (Led Zeppelin), Ian Anderson and Martin Barre (Jethro Tull), Andy Summers (The Police) and Mike Oldfield – so I'm in good company! I’ll always have a soft spot for the beautiful old 1965 Martin D-28 that’s been my staunch friend since I bought it way back in 1988, but I have to admit that the trad tunes in particular are a revelation on the new instrument: clear as a bell, every note ringing out strong and true. By comparison with the Martin, it's a bit like going from dependable riding-school cobs to hacking out on my neighbour's highly responsive warmblood eventing horse – something else I did for the first time recently! The potential for excellence is much greater, but all my shortcomings are suddenly thrown into sharp relief. Ah well, practice, practice, practice.

You can see photos of the new guitar either on the Photos page or on www.myspace.com/sarahmcquaid – and on www.youtube.com/sarahmcquaid as well as the MySpace page, you can even see and hear it live in action, thanks to a very kind audience member who sent me his videos of my gig at the Old Brewery in Cromarty!

I was rather apprehensive about bringing the kids (ages two and four) along on the Scotland excursion, but it worked out much better than I would have expected. Nearly every day we managed to make time for some sort of fun – a lovely stroll in the mountains around Glencoe, a visit to Urquhart Castle on Loch Ness as well as Edinburgh Castle, the new visitor centre at Culloden Battlefield, a walk through the treetops at Landmark Forest Theme Park, a steamboat trip on Ullswater in the Lake District. The kids were surprisingly happy to settle down in different beds every evening – and on the night of the aforementioned Cromarty gig, as our accommodation was directly above the venue, Feargal even managed to sneak down to catch a bit of the concert! Better still, at the end of the night we were both able to enjoy a very pleasant glass of wine (or three) with the wonderfully warm and hospitable proprietors, Mairi and Bill.

Speaking of hospitality, we were bowled over by the kindness and generosity of the welcome we received pretty much everywhere – special mentions are due not only to the above-mentioned Cromarty hosts, but also to David and Anne Fiddes in Strachur, who opened their home to us and plied us with macaroni cheese; to Caroline in Glenfarg, who not only put us up but proffered homeopathic remedies; to all the singers in Glenfarg who made that evening a great listening as well as performing experience; to the superb singer/guitarist George Duff for allowing himself to be railroaded into playing an unplanned support slot before my Leith Folk Club gig as well as joining me onstage for a song ... and generally to each of the many individuals, most of them volunteers, who made all the various gigs possible.

Infinite thanks to Feargal, too, for giving up his holidays to be chauffeur, babysitter and sounding board all rolled into one. The poor man celebrated his birthday – which also happens to be Valentine's Day – by coming down with a dreadful case of tonsilitis, navigating unfamiliar roads to find a doctor, and then minding the kids in a B&B while I was out doing my gig.

Last Friday I had a hair-rising 60-mile drive through thick fog to Bodmin and back again the same night – but it was well worth it for the pleasure of hearing Linde Nijland and Bert Ridderbos performing songs of Sandy Denny at the Bodmin Folk Club. They've just left this morning after spending two nights here with us – last night we had a bit of a session in the kitchen, which I hope will be the first of many!

And talking of sessions, I've finally managed to get out to some nice ones locally: at the Globe in Truro and the Blue Anchor in Helston, where I had some great tunes with Neil Davey and Hilary Coleman of the Cornish band Dalla. There's also a new session starting up here in Penzance at the Admiral Benbow, run by Alan and Linda Collins – I'm hoping to check it out next week.

In two weeks' time I'm off to Holland again, and then I'll be heading over to Ireland – again with the kids in tow, but instead of coming along on the tour they'll be staying with their granny and granddad while I gallivant around the country. As always, for full details see the Calendar. All the best until next time!

Hello, all. As you can see from the subject line, I’ve been brushing up on my Nederlands (note that the titles of some of the pics on my Photos page have been changed accordingly), and it’s come in very handy over the last few days. I am indeed in the train, somewhere between Rotterdam and Brussels as I type, heading home after three lovely gigs in Holland.

The first gig was in a church that hosts a folk club called, wait for it, ‘The Holy Ground’. A few weeks ago, the organiser sent me an email explaining that it was a tradition for all the artists who appear there to sing the song ‘The Holy Ground’ -- not the beautiful song written by Gerry O’Beirne (www.gerryobeirne.com), but the tankard-thumping ballad popularised by The Dubliners and their ilk. My initial reaction, as you can imagine, was oh, no, no, no.

However, as it happened, a day or so later I was doing a bit of research prepatory to writing a review of a Clancy Brothers ‘Best Of’ compilation, and came across an interview with Liam Clancy in which he explained how the band came up with their signature sound. Back when they first arrived in New York in 1956, they held an informal meeting to discuss what kind of “show” they could put on (remember, at that point they were actors first and musicians second). Liam Clancy was bouncing up and down on a very springy sofa, and suggested to the others that they try singing traditional Irish songs to the upbeat rhythm he was producing with his exertions. Next thing you know, they were sporting their mammy’s hand-knitted Aran jumpers on the Ed Sullivan show ... and the rest, as they say, is history.

Fortunately for me, the process works equally well in reverse, and when I took the metaphorical springs OUT of the metaphorical sofa, I discovered that ‘The Holy Ground’ is actually a beautiful song. Having sung it at two of the venues in Holland, I think I might just keep it in the set list. Many, many thanks to The Holy Ground’s Barend van Straten for bringing it to my attention.

On Sunday, I had the best gig of my life thus far. Down in the south of Holland, in the town of Sevenum, Piet Snellen hosts De Fookhook (www.fookhook.nl) at De Sevewaeg, an “echt gezellig” (warm, cosy, friendly) bar/restaurant with candles on the tables, brilliant sound and the most appreciative audience I’ve ever played for: two standing ovations complete with stomping feet, and three encores! Here’s a photo taken by Piet (there are a couple more on the Photos page):
Gigs at the Fookhook take place on Sundays from 4 to 6pm -- a format I heartily wish other folk clubs would adopt. It’s wonderful, because musicians and punters alike can have dinner AFTER the gig, which for artists means that they don’t have to worry about singing on a full stomach, and for audiences means that they can discuss the pluses and minuses of the concert over a relaxed meal. It’s also good for the proprietors, as they’re getting a drink-buying crowd in at a time that would be quiet otherwise. Venues everywhere, please take note! Piet has a great lineup of acts coming through in the coming months, notably my pals in Carmina (www.carmina.co.uk) on Sunday 6 April.

Monday I visited my great friend Danny Guinan (www.dannyguinan.com) and his wife Tanja in Haarlem, and Tuesday I headed way up north to Friesland, where I not only had a very nice gig at Folk in de Wâlden (www.folkindewalden.nl) but also met a lovely singer called Linde Nijland (www.lindenijland.nl), who used to be half of the acclaimed duo Yggdrasil and has just released a solo album featuring songs of Sandy Denny. She has a tour coming up in the UK including dates in Devon and Cornwall, so I’m hoping to catch one of her gigs myself.

May I once again extol the merits of travel by train? I’m sorry if I’m becoming a bit of a bore about this, but I’ve just taken the train from Penzance to London to Brussels to Dordrecht to Haarlem to Leeuwarden to Rotterdam to Brussels to London to Penzance, and I wouldn’t for a millisecond have traded the experience for a shorter journey by air, even leaving aside carbon footprint issues. So very nice to be able to stretch my legs, to see the changing scenery through the window, to load my suitcase with books and CDs without worrying about weight issues, and most of all to be able to keep my guitar in my sight at all times. The sleeper train from Penzance to London was particularly nice -- a cosy bunk in which to rock to sleep like a baby in a papoose, and a cup of tea brought to my door in the morning -- what luxury!

Oh, and if anyone else out there wants to brush up on their Dutch, check out the ever-fascinating “Dutch word of the day” website: http://dwotd.web-log.nl/ -- great fun to read even if you’ve no interest in learning the lingo.

The other bit of news is that the estimable Jean Camp is now looking after my booking in the UK and Ireland, which leaves me more time to practise my guitar chops and learn new songs. If you’d like to contact her directly, she can be reached on jean@faymusconnections.co.uk.

I’ll be heading up to Scotland for a week in February, then over to the Netherlands again in March before my Ireland tour in late March and early April. As always, for full details see my Calendar. Happy New Year to all of you!

A major surprise in today’s post: I’ve just received the October/November edition of Welsh folk magazine Taplas, only to discover that I’m on the cover! I did the interview with the magazine’s editor, Keith Hudson, some weeks back but had no idea that he was planning to give it such prominence. Check it out on www.taplas.co.uk.

I was equally chuffed to get my copy of December’s Folk Roots magazine (www.frootsmag.com) and find a highly favourable review of When Two Lovers Meet, with a big double-column image of one of Alastair Bruce’s lovely new photographs. It’s only a short review in the “and the rest ...” section, so here’s the text in its entirety (you can also read the review and see the photo they used on www.frootsmag.com/content/issue/reviews/ – scroll down to the bottom of the page to see it):

“Previously lauded in these pages on its original release, Sarah McQuaid’s debut album offers a masterclass in restraint and subtlety. Authoritative singing and quietly insistent arrangements make for a sumptuous whole – recommended.”

In other news, I’m the featured guest on the current edition of Mike Ganley’s show “The Crooked Road” on Radio Britfolk. You can listen to the interview either on the Press page or, for the rest of this week, at www.radiobritfolk.co.uk.

Speaking of Internet radio, Brian O hEadhra – who I know from his work with the group Anam – used my version of ‘The Parting Glass’ as the final track of the current program of his show ‘Acoustic Nation’ on Scottish Internet Radio. To hear the show, go to www.internetradio.co.uk/acoustic_nation.html and click on the link for 4th November 2007.

There are a few last-minute additions to the gig calendar, notably a date in Bristol on December 8th as special guest with Carmina (www.carmina.co.uk). For full details see the Calendar page.

All the best until next time!

Hello, one and all. I'm sitting on the train as I write this, on my way home to Cornwall from the Return To Camden Town Festival (www.returntocamden.org) in London, but metaphorically speaking I'm walking on air. The night was nothing short of magical. Singer/guitarist Terence O'Flaherty opened the show, followed by a 40-minute set by my good self, and then four of my favourite artists in the world took the stage. I'd have gladly paid money to see any one of them solo, but there they were all together: Róisín Elsafty, Máirtín O'Connor, Cathal Hayden and Séamie O'Dowd. They fully deserved the hoots and hollers the audience gave them, and for an encore they asked me up for a song, so Róisín and I swapped verses and harmonised on 'Red Is The Rose' while the lads vamped along mellifluously. It was a major honour to be in such company -- I'll be holding onto that memory for a long time! I'm happy to say that a photographer was present and has promised to send me a few snaps to put up on the website, so do check back in a few weeks' time and you might see them.

I had an equally awe-inspiring experience last Friday, when I did some singing in the hallowed premises of the Sawmills Studio -- used by Oasis, Stone Roses, XTC et al (for the full list and a gawk at the pictures, visit www.sawmills.co.uk). My pal Colin Harper had asked me to do a track on a very interesting-sounding project he's putting together, consisting of 20 songs written by Colin and performed by the likes of Tina McSherry, Roisin Gallagher, Conor Shields and -- yes! -- me, with featured instrumentalists including Martin Hayes and Duke Special among others. Keep an eye on his website (www.colin-harper.com) for news of its release. The studio was an experience in itself -- to get there, you park down in a sleepy little harbour in the village of Golant, ring the sound engineer, and he put-put-puts over in a motorboat to collect you. I only got a quick peek at the comfy quarters enjoyed by bands that take the full residential package, but it looked rather nice -- big leather sofas, pool table, widescreen telly, shelves of DVDs and so forth. I managed to get my vocals down in the allotted three hours, but as the tide was out when it came time to leave, I couldn't take the boat and instead had to walk along the railroad bridge while keeping an ear out for approaching trains!

Speaking of trains, I've been using them for as much of my transport to and from gigs as possible -- partly to keep my carbon footprint down and partly because it's just so much pleasanter than flying or driving. I'm even going to take the train when I go over to the Netherlands for my mini-tours there in January and March -- overnight from Penzance to London, then Eurostar from London to Brussels and on to Holland. It'll be an adventure ....

Unfortunately, some venues can't be reached by rail, and that's where the TomTom comes in. At the Tisbury Folk & Acoustic Music Festival last month, I found myself sitting in the illustrious company of Nancy Kerr, James Fagan, Pete Coe and Bob Fox. It was one in the morning or thereabouts, we were all having a civilised glass of wine and what were we animatedly discussing? Our satellite navigation devices. It couldn't have been sadder, and then suddenly it was: James and Nancy revealed that THEIR TomTom (a much fancier model than mine) allowed you to record your own instructions. Next thing you know, I was intoning "Go through the roundabout" into the little microphone, and then Bob Fox got to say "Keep right," or maybe it was "Take the exit" -- I can't remember. Such hilarity. Ah, the high jinks us folk musicians get up to in our spare time.

Earlier this month, photographer Alastair Bruce (www.alastairbruce.co.uk) travelled all the way down from his base in Devon to take pics for the new album; I'll also be using them for my publicity purposes from here on out, as it was beginning to seem a bit cheeky to be sending out photos taken back in 1996, nice and all as they were. He managed to assemble a lovely bunch of images, all taken in and around our house. You can see a selection of them, as well as some very nice pics taken by Chris Stanbury (www.swallowcliffe.com) at the aforementioned Tisbury festival, here -- check out the one Chris took of the gorgeous black labrador who supplied brilliant backing vocals to my rendition of 'In The Pines'! Also newly updated is the Press page with the text of various recently-published reviews and articles.

All the best until next time!

Hello, all. The good news is that the Wadebridge folk festival this coming weekend is back on again after being cancelled in June (see http://www.folkweekend.co.uk), and I'll be doing a half-hour slot in the Sunday evening concert headlined by Martin Simpson. Also new on the updated calendar is a gig at Ryan's Bar in Torquay on the 11th of September.

When Two Lovers Meet has been getting quite a bit of airplay since its UK release at the end of July. You can hear tracks from it in the August edition of Folkcast -- click on http://www.folkcast.co.uk to download or listen live -- and on Mike Ganley's show The Crooked Road on Radio Britfolk -- click on http://www.radiobritfolkhome.co.uk to listen live.

I had a brilliant time at Sidmouth Folk Week earlier this month, gave a very well-attended workshop on the DADGAD tuning (at the close of which I sold every one of the 20 copies of the book I'd brought with me -- have now had to order more copies from Music Sales!) and did two concert appearances, one at the Rugby Club and the other at the Bedford Hotel. Dutch fan Karin Pronk took a rather nice photo of me during the latter set -- you can see it on http://www.sarahmcquaid.com/photos.html. Also heard loads of great music, notably the wonderful a cappella trio Cockersdale and the lovely Jackie Oates, whom I'd not come across before and whose CD I purchased on the spot.

The CD has been getting some nice reviews recently as well, on NetRhythms and in Folknews Kernow. To read them, click on http://www.sarahmcquaid.com/press.html and then on "Read Reviews/Articles".

Many, many thanks for your support, and feel free to email me with any questions or comments. All the best until next time!

Hello there. The family and I are now installed in our new home in Cornwall, and the weather is making us feel right at home. I think there's been at least some rain on every day of the four weeks we've been here thus far.

We are still neck deep in boxes that need to be unpacked, but it'll all get done eventually, and things seem to be working themselves out in the most unexpected ways. For example, the movers managed to rip a chunk of wood off the piano (just trim, nothing that has anything to do with the production of sound, thank heavens) -- and the absence of that particular chunk of wood enables said piano to slide with nary a millimetre to spare into the alcove we had earmarked for it. I guess it'll be staying off, then.

When Two Lovers Meet is being released here in the UK tomorrow, 30 July, with distribution through Proper Records -- click here for details! I've been doing a few interviews to promote it -- had a lovely chat with Robbie Shepherd of BBC Radio Scotland today, and with Mike Ganley of Radio Britfolk earlier in the week. I also spoke with Sharon Ni Chonchuir of The Irish Post for a profile that should be appearing in their new entertainment supplement sometime soon.

And Gerry (O'Beirne) and Trevor (Hutchinson) are going to be doing the final mixdown of my new album (recorded last May) in Dublin next weekend. I won't be there, obviously, but am confident that they'll do a much better job without me hanging about and annoying them with silly questions.

There are lots of gigs in the pipeline now, including a just-confirmed appearance at the Return To Camden Town festival in London, about which I'm very chuffed! See the CALENDAR page for a full list.

All the best until next time ...

Hello there. I'm on day nine of the recording of my new album, and it's sounding really lovely so far. All thanks, I must immediately point out, to the good offices of Gerry O'Beirne and Trevor Hutchinson, who are back in the producer's and engineer's seats, respectively, just over ten years on from when we recorded When Two Lovers Meet. We're back in Trevor's house in Glasnevin, Dublin, where the first album was made as well, and it all feels strange and familiar at the same time.

It's going to be quite a different album from the last one in terms of the material; the focus this time round is going to be on the American old-timey songs and tunes that I remember from my childhood. But we're still aiming for the same spare, uncluttered feel.

There are two new original songs as well, both written within the last month. The melody for one of them, in fact, was just written last Friday night. Liam Bradley had been in the studio most of the day, putting down some very cool percussion on three tracks and gorgeous vocals on a fourth. I wish Liam would make an album featuring his singing sometime -- he has an amazing high tenor voice that deserves to be heard. Anyway, he finished up, packed up all his numerous bits and pieces (a chunk of stone from Iceland, seashells on a rope, bells and blocks of wood and all sorts, not to mention several huge drums that all somehow fitted into the boot of his car, as if in a reversal of the old circus gag with the dozens of clowns getting out of the Mini) and got back on the road to his house in Donegal, which he'd left at 6.30 that morning, poor fellow ... and then I started to try and record a song I'd written a few weeks back, and it just didn't seem to be working.

At 8 in the evening or so, Gerry told me he had an assignment for me: I was to go off to the place where I was staying and write a new melody for the song. I went back to my friend Mary's tiny flat behind the Guinness brewery, feeling utterly disconsolate and crestfallen. Fortunately for her, she was working late that night, so didn't have to listen to me moan about how discouraged I felt. Instead, I poured myself a glass of wine, sat down and wrote an infinitely better melody than the one I'd had before, with a completely different rhythm and chord structure. So fair play to Gerry for making me do it. It's a song that's very close to my heart -- I wrote it for my daughter, who was born in 2005, and my mother, who died in 2004, and on Saturday morning when I tried to play the new version through for Gerry and Trevor, I started crying halfway through the song and had to take a break. But in the end I managed to pull myself together and record it, and it's good.

I've also recorded one cover -- 'Ode to Billie Joe' by Bobbie Gentry. Gerry wanted to hear the original version of the song for comparison purposes, so I went onto Amazon and ordered a brilliant compilation called 'Chickasaw County Child: The Artistry of Bobbie Gentry'. Having now listened to it several dozen times over, I'm going to order every recording she's ever made. She's a phenomenally talented woman and has supplanted Ella Fitzgerald as my favourite singer of all time. She wrote (and that's wrote, not co-wrote) nearly all of the 23 songs on the compilation I have, and the one thing they have in common is the excellence with which they're crafted. The styles of the individual songs vary wildly, but in terms of lyrics, melody and structure, they're hard to beat. She's a nifty guitar player as well, and even produced one of her own albums -- most unusual for that era. And then there's that voice, raw and husky but always perfectly controlled, with an incredibly elastic range. Born in 1944 in rural Chickasaw County, Mississippi, and raised mostly by her grandparents in a house with no electricity or indoor plumbing, Gentry set off for Las Vegas after graduating from secondary school and found work dancing at a casino in a Folies Bergere-style revue. In the mid-60s she moved to California, where she reportedly studied philosophy at UCLA (something this philosophy graduate was intrigued to discover), then transferred to the LA Conservatory of Music and started doing gigs at a club in Pasadena. That led to a publishing deal and then to the release of 'Ode To Billie Joe' as her debut single on Capitol Records in July 1967. Four albums followed, and Gentry eventually became a fixture on the stages of Las Vegas and Reno casinos (and was briefly married to gambling-hall tycoon Bill Harrah). There's a great quote in the compilation CD's liner notes from Tom Jones, who reminisces about how he, Gentry and Elvis Presley would congregate in Elvis' hotel suite after their gigs and stay up singing and jamming together until dawn. Those must have been some sessions ....

And yesterday (Sunday), Máire Breatnach came in and put down some utterly beautiful fiddle and viola tracks. I feel so very privileged to have had her on this recording -- she's a lovely person and a brilliant musician; I'm in awe of her ability to hear a song for the first time, sense instinctively what it needs, translate that to her instrument and get it spot-on in one take. Respect, as Ali G might say.

Speaking of respect -- Gerry and I were talking with Máire about Omos, the concert at Vicar Street in honour of the late Mícheál Ó Domhnaill, which we all attended last Thursday night. There were some uproariously funny moments, as when Máirtín Ó Connor introduced a tune as "'The Tongs By The Fire' ... without the 'h' ..." and some deeply poignant moments, as when a reunited Bothy Band -- Tríona Ní Dhomnaill, Kevin Burke, Matt Molloy, Paddy Keenan, Paddy Glackin and Donal Lunny -- assembled around an empty chair, the unplayed guitar on its stand beside it reminding us why we were there. Earlier, Paddy Keenan had played a powerful solo set on the uilleann pipes, probably the high point of the evening from a musical point of view. And at the start of the second set, Mícheál himself had appeared on a large screen above the stage, in an old clip from 'As I Roved Out', over the course of which the camera panned back to reveal Kevin Burke on the fiddle ... and none other than Gerry O'Beirne, in a much younger and rather more hirsute incarnation, playing a 12-string guitar.

I'll be finishing up in the studio on Thursday, then heading off up to Coleraine on Friday to start the next round of gigs. Have a look at the calendar for an updated schedule; note the change of date for the Bridge Tavern gig, which will now take place on Weds June 13 instead of Tues June 19 as previously announced.

The plan at the moment is to wait to release the new album until February or thereabouts, so as not to interfere with the ongoing re-release of When Two Lovers Meet. But in the meantime I might put a taster track or two up on the website -- we'll see. All will be revealed ....

Finally, infinite thanks to my long-suffering husband, Feargal Shiels, who's been doing far more than his fair share of looking after the children while Mummy is away playing her guitar; I've been spending two nights out of every three in Dublin, in order to minimise the time I spend driving up and down to Ballycanew. Don't worry, lads, he'll get his revenge in due course -- he's already making plans for a long solo holiday on the bike after we move to Cornwall!

Many, many thanks for your support, and feel free to email me with any questions or comments. All the best until next time!

Hello again. My recent interviews with Pat Kenny, Aine Hensey and Charlie McGettigan are all up on the website now – just go to the PRESS page and click on "Listen to radio interviews". If you've already had a look there, you might have heard a version of the Charlie McGettigan interview that had a bit of distortion on it. However, Charlie being the true gent that he is, he's just sent me a replacement sound file that's crystal clear and has now been uploaded to replace the old one. Thanks, Charlie!

Just a few days to go until my television debut (gulp!) next Tuesday, 3 April. If you can manage to stay up until the last few moments of The View, John Kelly's late-night chat show on RTE 1, you'll be able to catch a glimpse of yours truly playing the title track from When Two Lovers Meet behind the closing credits of the show, which airs at 11pm GMT. You can also watch the clip for a week afterwards on http://www.rte.ie/tv/theview/index.html.

And for what it's worth, the day before yesterday I wrote a song for the first time since 1998. It's too early to know whether it's any good or not, but a big relief to have that particular dry spell come to an end.

A few more gigs have been added to the CALENDAR page – notably, the good people at the Bridge Tavern in Wicklow Town (where I had a most enjoyable gig last week -- nice pub, lovely relaxed crowd) have asked me to come back for three return dates in April, May and June, so I guess they must have liked me. I must say that the response I've had since my return to the music scene continues to amaze me. If I'd had any inkling that it would be this good, I wouldn't have waited ten years to get the album out there! I honestly thought that there couldn't be any market for the kind of stuff I do, so it's astonishing and wonderful to discover that there is.

We're pushing on with plans to move over to Cornwall in July, despite having had no bites on our house here in Ireland. If anybody out there knows anyone who might be interested in a four-bedroom semi-D in Ballycanew, please do send them my way. It's a nice house, really it is. You can even check it out on the web -- here's the link:
http://www3.myhome.ie/search/property.asp?id=294380&np=&rt=search&searchlist=
Until next time!

The day before yesterday, my three-year-old son Eli, while looking at a picture of a tiger, having already observed that said tiger was orange and black, uttered the following: "Tigers are made from fire and they're made from night-time." And no, he hasn't been dipping into William Blake behind my back ....

Thanks to all the good work of the supremely competent Bernie at Gael Linn, I'm spending quite a bit of time on the airwaves these days.

Charlie McGettigan (http://www.charliemcgettigan.com) does a brilliant show on Shannonside/Northern Sound Radio (http://www.shannonside.ie) that airs every Saturday from 10am to 12 noon. He was kind enough to have me on the show for a full hour last weekend, during which I managed to get in four songs and lots and lots of chat! I've posted the full interview on the website -- here's the link if you'd like to listen back to it: http://sarahmcquaid.com/press-group-3.html
This coming Sunday night, 11 March, I'll be talking with Aine Hensey on her show 'The Late Session' on RTE Radio 1. The show airs from 10 to 11pm GMT but can be caught on the web for up to a week after that via this link: http://www.rte.ie/radio1/thelatesession/
On Thursday, 15 March, I'll be doing an interview and a few songs on Today With Pat Kenny. The programme is on from 10am to 12 noon GMT, and as with Aine Hensey's show, you can listen to it online for one week afterwards. Here's the link:
http://www.rte.ie/radio1/todaywithpatkenny/
On Tuesday, 3 April, I'll be making my first-ever television appearance (gulp!) on The View. Hosted by writer and broadcaster John Kelly every Tuesday night on RTE 1, the show airs at 11pm GMT and I'll be playing the title track from When Two Lovers Meet at the close of the show. Once again, if you miss the show, you can still watch the clip for a week afterwards on http://www.rte.ie/tv/theview/index.html
Finally, on Sunday, 6 May, I'll be the guest on June Carley's show, 'Best Of Irish', on Midlands 103 (link for more info about June and her show: http://www.midlandsradio.fm/page.aspx?page_id=137). The show airs from 11pm to 12 midnight GMT, and you can listen live at http://www.midlands103.com/
There are a few more gigs in the pipeline, too. See the calendar for an updated list.