Promoting her live-in-lockdown album The St Buryan Sessions, Cornwall-based singer-songwriter Sarah McQuaid is due to perform at Swindon Arts Centre on Wednesday 4 June 2025.
Born in Spain, raised in Chicago, holding dual Irish and American citizenship and now settled in rural England, Sarah brings the eclecticism of her background to her “captivating, unorthodox song writing” (PopMatters) and choice of material, spanning genres and defying categorisation. All this is abundantly demonstrated by her new live album and video series The St Buryan Sessions — but needs to be savoured in person to be fully appreciated.
Promoting her live-in-lockdown album The St Buryan Sessions, Cornwall-based singer-songwriter Sarah McQuaid is due to perform at Swindon Arts Centre on Wednesday 4 June 2025.
Born in Spain to a Spanish father and American mother, 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, where her authorship of The Irish DADGAD Guitar Book led to invitations to write regular music columns and reviews for Hot Press magazine and Dublin’s Evening Herald.
Following her move in 2007 (with her Irish husband and their two children) to Cornwall, she swiftly struck up a friendship with a fellow mum outside the gates of their children’s school. That fellow mum turned out to be Zoë Pollock, writer and performer of 1991 UK Top 5 single, 'Sunshine On A Rainy Day.' 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.”
Most recently, Martin produced and engineered Sarah’s sixth solo album, The St Buryan Sessions, recorded live in lockdown in the beautiful medieval church of St Buryan, just over a mile from Sarah’s home.
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.
For more information and to book tickets,visit @SarahMcquaidArtsCentre
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