PRESS PACK

www.sarahmcquaid.com

“Sparkling guitar and compelling alto voice ... reminiscent of Pentangle’s best efforts ... a gentle
and magical recording that I will return to time and again.” — Sing Out!

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

“An unreserved thumbs-up. Captivating performance, great songs, playing and singing. Sarah was
also totally professional, charming and low maintenance. What more could you ask for?”
— Gerry Evans, TwickFolk, London

“She sings with so much beauty – and with utmost respect for the folklore behind each song and
ballad.” — Gene Shay, WXPN, Philadelphia

“A must for everyone who loves a CD you can put on again and again, and never tire of it.”
— Roz Larman, FolkScene, Los Angeles

“Pure magic!! We are running our folkclub for 16 years now but I never experienced such a thrilling
interaction between artist and audience.” — Piet Snellen, De Fookhook, Netherlands

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

“Some of the loveliest songs you’ll hear all year.” — Living Tradition

“A masterclass in restraint and subtlety. Authoritative singing and quietly insistent arrangements
make for a sumptuous whole.” — fRoots

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

“Highly recommended.” — Americana UK

“Spine-tingling.” — Hot Press

“Quietly expressive and supremely affecting performances ... a truly lovely record.” — NetRhythms
 PROFILE

Renowned for her warm, engaging stage presence, Sarah McQuaid is a versatile and beguiling
performer. In addition to her own elegantly crafted originals, she interprets traditional Irish and
Appalachian folk songs, Elizabethan ballads, 1930s jazz numbers, surprise covers and lively
guitar instrumentals with panache and poignance.

Her deliciously earthy voice delivers a powerful emotional punch that’s matched by her
distinctive, eloquent guitar style. Add this to a real rapport with her audience, and you have all
the ingredients of a great night out.

Born in Spain, raised in Chicago and holding dual Irish and American citizenship, Sarah spent 13 years in Ireland
and now lives near Penzance, Cornwall, in the southwest of England.

As might be expected of one who has led such a peripatetic existence, Sarah developed a taste for the road
early on: From the age of twelve she was embarking on tours of the US and Canada with the Chicago Children’s
Choir. At eighteen she went to France for a year to study philosophy at the University of Strasbourg, where her
performance at a local folk club drew a rave review in the Dernières Nouvelles d’Alsace, saluting the “superbe
chanteuse d’outre-Atlantique qui fit passer comme une vibration émotionnelle dans une salle conquise” (superb
singer from across the Atlantic who caused an emotional vibration to pass through a conquered hall)!

In 1994, Sarah moved to Ireland, where she became a weekly folk music columnist for the Evening Herald and a
contributor to Hot Press magazine. She is also the author of The Irish DADGAD Guitar Book, described by The
Irish Times as “a godsend to aspiring traditional guitarists,” and has presented workshops on the DADGAD tuning
at festivals and venues around the globe.

Her debut solo album, When Two Lovers Meet, featured traditional tunes and songs along with one original
number. “Sarah’s voice is both as warm as a turf fire and as rich as matured cognac.... An astonishing debut by
a unique talent,” wrote the Rough Guide To Irish Music. Despite the critical acclaim, a long break from the music
scene followed, during which Sarah married Feargal Shiels and had two children, Eli and Lily Jane.

When Two Lovers Meet was re-released in Ireland and the UK in 2007, a year that also saw Sarah touring as a
solo artist for the first time. Tracks from the album were included in FolkCast’s “artists of the year” podcast and in
Crooked Road host Mike Ganley’s Top Ten picks for the year.

The move to the other side of the Irish Sea was triggered by the death in 2004 of her mother, in whose former
home she now lives and to whom her second album, 2008’s I Won’t Go Home ’Til Morning, was dedicated. Says
Sarah: “My first album was immersed in Irish traditional music, which I still love – but this time round, I felt the
need to revisit the Southern Appalachian songs and tunes that I learned during my childhood. All the songs on this
recording have powerful emotional resonances for me, and all are connected in one way or another to my mother.
Looking back, I guess it was kind of a cathartic process.”

Like its predecessor, I Won’t Go Home ’Til Morning was recorded in Trevor Hutchinson’s Dublin studio and
produced by Gerry O’Beirne. Both also guest on the album, alongside percussionist Liam Bradley, Máire
Breatnach on fiddle and viola and Rosie Shipley on fiddle.

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”. (For more on Mama, see www.mamamusic.co.uk).

In February 2010, Sarah re-released the first two albums in a double-disc package for the North American
market, to coincide with her appearances at the Folk Alliance conference in Memphis and her first US tour, which
immediately followed the conference. The double CD became the No. 1 album, and Sarah the No. 1 artist, on the
folkradio.org chart for February 2010 (http://folkradio.org/airplay/feb10.html). Taking in 20 concerts in 23 days,
including Boston’s Club Passim, upstate New York’s Old Songs and Nashville’s Bluebird Café, the tour was a great
success, generating several immediate return bookings for subsequent tours in 2010 and 2011.

Now busy with upcoming tours and concerts in Ireland, the UK, Europe and the USA, Sarah is currently
assembling material for her third solo album, provisionally titled The Plum Tree And The Rose, once again with
Gerry O’Beirne producing and Trevor Hutchinson engineering. Sarah is also slowly but surely working on a novel
for which she’s received two Irish Arts Council Bursaries in Literature. She hopes to finish it one of these days.
 PAST PERFORMANCES INCLUDE:
IRELAND
Flat Lake Literary And Arts Festival, Clones
Strandhill Guitar Festival
Dublin Unitarian Church
Hawk’s Well Theatre, Sligo
Wexford Arts Centre
Village Arts Centre, Kilworth
Iontas Theatre, Castleblayney
Ballina Arts Centre
Briery Gap Theatre, Macroom
Pavilion Theatre, Dun Laoghaire
St John’s Theatre & Arts Centre, Listowel
Triskel Arts Centre, Cork
Solstice Arts Centre, Navan
An Táin Theatre, Dundalk
Bog Lane Theatre, Ballymahon
Séamus Ennis Cultural Centre, Fingal
Christ Church Cathedral, Waterford
Ionad Cois Locha, Dunlewy
McCarthy’s Bar, Dingle
Crane Bar, Galway
De Barra’s, Clonakilty
Bantry House
New Music Club, Clonmel
NORTHERN IRELAND
Ards International Guitar Festival,
Newtownards
Island Arts Centre, Lisburn
Castlereagh Civic Centre
Riverside Theatre, Coleraine
Rowallane Garden (NT), Ballinahinch
Flowerfield Arts Centre, Portstewart
UK
Trowbridge Village Pump Festival
Bromyard Folk Festival
Sidmouth Folk Week
Return To Camden Town Festival, London
Bordergrass Festival, Weobley
St Ives September Festival
Wadebridge Folk Festival
Isles of Scilly Folk Festival
Alcester Folk Festival
Tisbury Folk Festival
Golowan Festival
Sandford Music & Arts Festival
Folkmob, London
The Goose Is Out!, London
TwickFolk, London
Wee Folk Club, Edinburgh
Leith Folk Club, Edinburgh
Live At The Star, Glasgow
Strachur Memorial Hall, Argyll
Fiddle Tree, Dunkeld
Woodend Barn, Banchory
Warehouse Theatre, Lossiemouth
Salisbury Arts Centre
Wellington Arts Centre
Red Lion Folk Club, Birmingham
Islwyn Acoustic Guitar Club, Newport
Wadebridge Acoustic Guitar Club
Live At The Institute, Kelvedon
Queen’s Theatre, Barnstaple
Tilston Music Club, Malpas
Beaford Arts Rural Touring Scheme
Carn To Cove Rural Touring Scheme
NETHERLANDS
Theater Odeon, Zwolle
Trouble Tree Folkconcerts, Koudekerk
Folk Club Noordwijkerhout, Voorhout
De Fookhook, Sevenum
Meneer Frits, Eindhoven
Folk in Meeden
Folk in de Wâlden, Oentsjerk
Theater Karroessel, Geleen
Theater Twee Hondjes, Hellevoetsluis
BELGIUM
Toogenblik, Brussels
GERMANY
Greenfarm Festival, Munich
SPAIN
Palacio de Congresos y de la Música
Euskalduna, Bilbao
USA
Club Passim, Cambridge, MA
The Bluebird Café, Nashville, TN
Old Songs, Voorheesville, NY
Iron Horse Concert Hall, El Dorado, KS
The Back Room, Great Bend, KS
Lang Building, Beatrice, NE
Kennedy-Douglass Center For The Arts,
Florence, AL
Lupus General Store, Lupus, MO
Elysium Arts, Rollinsford, NH
Music By The Bay, Assonet, MA

BOOKING CONTACT:
bookings@sarahmcquaid.com

MEDIA CONTACT – UK, IRELAND & EUROPE:

Pat Tynan
15 Pepys Close
Ickenham
Uxbridge, Middx UB10 8NX
UK
Tel: +44 1895 631336
Mobile: +44 7985 400297
pattynan@btinternet.com

MEDIA CONTACT – NORTH AMERICA:

Cash Edwards
1121-B Bluebonnet Lane
Austin, TX 78704
USA
Tel: +1 (512) 447-0544
Mobile: +1 (512) 294-3126
cashedwards@austin.rr.com

More info, reviews, MP3s, videos and downloadable high-res photos

available at
www.sarahmcquaid.com