Events Programme

Sarah McQuaid

Sat 17-04-2010 21:30

• Music

Ticket price: €12/10 - Buy now »

Drawing on the traditions of Ireland, America and the UK, her music is sublime and compelling, characterised by warm, velvety vocals and a distinctive acoustic guitar style. She has the ability to create an intimate atmosphere with her stories song and guitar making th audience part of the gig.

No. 1 chart success for Irish artist 

 “Truly spine-tingling ... A touching album from a genuine artist.” — Hot Press

“Likely to make the hairs stand up on the back of your neck.” — Aled Jones, BBC Radio 2

Madrid-born Sarah McQuaid was raised in Chicago, studied philosophy in Strasbourg and spent many years in Ireland before pitching up in Penzance, Cornwall, in 2007Her acclaimed debut album album When Two Lovers Meet was a feast of Irish music, 2008’s I Won’t Go Home ’Til Morning is an enchanting celebration of old-time Appalachian folk, with Sarah’s arrangements punctuated by her own fine compositions and a cover of Bobbie Gentry’s classic ‘Ode to Billie Joe’. Sarah is also the author of a highly-regarded guitar tutor, The Irish DADGAD Guitar Book. Crow Coyote Buffalo, an album of songs co-written by Sarah with fellow Penzance resident Zoë (author and performer of 1991 hit single ‘Sunshine On A Rainy Day’) under the band name Mama, has also been garnering rave reviews since its January 2009 release; one critic described the pair as “Two pagan goddesses channelling the ghost of Jim Morrison”.

“Beautifully spare ... a melancholy but somehow celebratory collection.” — The Irish Times

Sarah’s third solo album, provisionally titled The Plum Tree And The Rose, focuses both on early music (including Elizabethan material as well as songs in Old French, Old Occitan, Italian, Middle High German and Latin) and on originals inspired by such topics as Bess of Hardwick and the garden created at Kenilworth by Robert Dudley for Elizabeth I. Its release is expected sometime in 2010. For more information or to download high-res photos suitable for print, visit www.sarahmcquaid.com.