Tickets
Advance £15 | Door £17
Dates
About this event
Born in Spain, Sarah grew up in Chicago, touring the US and Canada as a member of The Chicago Children’s Choir. In the mid-1990s she made her way to Ireland. Following her move in 2007 to Cornwall, she struck up a friendship with Zoë Pollock. The pair soon found themselves co-writing songs for an album released in 2008 under the band name Mama, lauded by MOJO’s Colin Irwin as “a pleasingly maverick mix” and by The Irish Times as “Janis Joplin’s freewheeling spirit crossed with Joni Mitchell’s lyrical density.”
Martin Stansbury, a longtime collaborator of Zoë’s who produced and engineered the Mama album, then became Sarah’s manager and sound engineer. He recently produced and engineered Sarah’s sixth solo album, The St Buryan Sessions, recorded live in the beautiful medieval church of St Buryan, just over a mile from Sarah’s home.
The album made it onto “Best of 2021” lists on three continents and features stunning solo performances by Sarah on acoustic and electric guitars, piano and floor tom drum. Her lush, distinctive vocals echo through the soaring space.
“McQuaid’s voice, a fragile, starkly resonant alto, has always been a thing of folk-trad beauty,” wrote reviewer Kenny Berkowitz in Acoustic Guitar magazine, “but here, with ambient mics placed around the church’s interior, it takes on a new joyfulness and a deeper darkness.” Ink 19’s Bob Pomeroy called it “a starkly minimalist recording of exceptional beauty”, and Folk Radio UK “a wonderful, expressive and intimate live album from a consummate performer.”
“It’s an intimate and changing 70 minutes,” wrote Adrian Jones in Folk London, “ending with the silence of this hallowed setting. Sneak out quietly. And then listen to it again!”
The entire album was filmed as it was being recorded, and videos of all 15 tracks can be viewed on Sarah’s website – https://sarahmcquaid.com – together with details of the forthcoming concert and more information including a 10-minute video intro to Sarah and her music.
Tue 18th Feb, 2025
Wheal Martyn, St Austell
Tue 18th Feb, 2025
St. Bartholomew's, Lostwithiel
£7 — £16
Tue 18th Feb, 2025 — Wed 19th Feb, 2025
Leach Pottery, St Ives
£0 — £5
Book NowThu 20th Feb, 2025
Hall for Cornwall, Truro
Book NowWed 19th Feb, 2025
The Acorn, Penzance
£7.50 — £30
Thu 20th Feb, 2025
The Acorn, Penzance
£19 — £19
Fri 21st Feb, 2025
The Acorn, Penzance
£16 — £16
Sat 22nd Feb, 2025
The Acorn, Penzance
£18 — £20