http://sarahmcquaid.com/news.html Sarah McQuaid: News Jannis' PHPRss class - http://www.jannis.to/ Sat, 04 Feb 2012 01:13:58 -0800 http://sarahmcquaid.com/news.html#35
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 ....]]> http://sarahmcquaid.com/news.html#35 Thu, 27 Oct 2011 00:00:00 -0700 Words and Music - Sarah McQuaid - News http://sarahmcquaid.com/news.html#36 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 ....]]> http://sarahmcquaid.com/news.html#36 Thu, 25 Aug 2011 00:00:00 -0700 Words and Music - Sarah McQuaid - News http://sarahmcquaid.com/news.html#34
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 ....]]> http://sarahmcquaid.com/news.html#34 Fri, 06 May 2011 00:00:00 -0700 Words and Music - Sarah McQuaid - News http://sarahmcquaid.com/news.html#33 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!]]> http://sarahmcquaid.com/news.html#33 Thu, 20 Jan 2011 00:00:00 -0800 Words and Music - Sarah McQuaid - News http://sarahmcquaid.com/news.html#32 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.]]> http://sarahmcquaid.com/news.html#32 Mon, 13 Dec 2010 00:00:00 -0800 Words and Music - Sarah McQuaid - News http://sarahmcquaid.com/news.html#31

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.]]> http://sarahmcquaid.com/news.html#31 Mon, 25 Jan 2010 00:00:00 -0800 Words and Music - Sarah McQuaid - News http://sarahmcquaid.com/news.html#30
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.]]> http://sarahmcquaid.com/news.html#30 Tue, 22 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0700 Words and Music - Sarah McQuaid - News http://sarahmcquaid.com/news.html#28
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!]]> http://sarahmcquaid.com/news.html#28 Tue, 07 Jul 2009 00:00:00 -0700 Words and Music - Sarah McQuaid - News http://sarahmcquaid.com/news.html#22 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.
]]> http://sarahmcquaid.com/news.html#22 Fri, 27 Mar 2009 00:00:00 -0700 Words and Music - Sarah McQuaid - News http://sarahmcquaid.com/news.html#21 here to read it if you’re interested!]]> http://sarahmcquaid.com/news.html#21 Wed, 25 Mar 2009 00:00:00 -0700 Words and Music - Sarah McQuaid - News