Sarah McQuaid has a busy summer planned ahead of her August-September UK tour – and new music to share
As she prepares for her August-September UK tour (to be followed by an October-November tour in the USA), Cornwall-based singer-songwriter Sarah McQuaid is spending the summer working hard on material for a new album to be recorded in the garage she’s in the process of converting to a home studio.
“I’ve been playing three of the new songs live during my spring tours in Europe, Ireland and the UK,” she says, “and they’ve been going down really well, so I can’t wait to finish off the rest of the half-written tracks I’ve got in the pipeline and then get properly stuck into pre-production for the album!”
She’s also continuing to make and release what she anticipates will be an ongoing series of Garage Sessions videos.
The first of these, I’m Slowing Down As I Get Older (And That’s Good), can be viewed on Sarah’s website and YouTube channel. It’s been mooted as the new album’s title track and has a bluesy flavour that evokes Sarah’s roots in Chicago, where she spent most of her childhood before moving to Ireland and then on to Cornwall.
“And we’ve already filmed the next two”, says Sarah. “The first week of June was our last chance to do anything in the garage before work got under way on the roof repairs, so as soon as we got home from the spring tour we unloaded the van straight in there, set up our PA and stage lighting, and recorded two more songs before packing it all away again!”
The garage studio — where Sarah plans to write, rehearse and record all her future albums — is being made possible in part by a crowdfunding campaign that’s still in progress, with thank-you gifts for donors ranging from CDs and LPs to original artwork, online guitar lessons and free downloads for life to all Sarah’s current and future releases.
On top of all this activity, in May of this year Sarah quietly released Walking Into White Live In Rapid City, recorded back in 2015, when she was performing that year’s album Walking Into White live, track for track, as the first half of every show.
“My wonderful manager and sound engineer Martin Stansbury was sorting through some old hard drives when he stumbled on the files”, Sarah explains, “and after listening back to them and hearing how good they sounded, he suggested we go ahead and put the live version out as a ‘surprise album drop’ to mark the 10th anniversary of Walking Into White.”
Restored and mastered by Stansbury, the album is available only as a download via Bandcamp, and not via streaming services or as physical product.
It also features three bonus tracks from the second half of the Rapid City concert, among them a rare solo performance of “Crow Coyote Buffalo”, the title track of the album Sarah made with Zoë Pollock (writer and performer of 1991 hit single “Sunshine On A Rainy Day”) under the band name Mama.
Artist’s website: https://sarahmcquaid.com
‘I’m Slowing Down As I Get Older (And That’s Good)’ – official video:
August-September UK concert dates
Thursday 21 Aug: Veryan Parish Church, Veryan, Cornwall
Friday 22 Aug: The Plough@St Anne’s, Barnstaple, Devon
Wednesday 3 Sep: Nuneaton Folk Club, The Crew/Queens Hall, Nuneaton, Warwickshire
Friday 5 Sep: Theatr Brycheiniog, Brecon, Powys
Saturday 6 Sep: Trottiscliffe Village Hall, West Malling, Kent
Sunday 7 Sep: Acoustic Events UK @ Brackenfield Village Hall, Alfreton, Derbyshire
Friday 12 Sep: Ilkley Manor House, Ilkley, West Yorkshire
Saturday 13 Sep: Middlesbrough Little Theatre Club (Toft House), Middlesbrough
Monday 15 Sep: Samuel Worth Chapel (via Nether Edge Festival), Sheffield
Wednesday 17 Sep: West Malvern Social Club, Malvern, Worcestershire
Thursday 18 Sep: The Place Bedford
Friday 19 Sep: Downend Folk & Roots @ Christ Church, Downend, Bristol
Saturday 20 Sep: The Watermark, Ivybridge, Devon
We all give our spare time to run folking.com. Our aim has always been to keep folking a free service for our visitors, artists, PR agencies and tour promoters. If you wish help out and donate something (running costs currently funded by Paul Miles), please click the PayPal link below to send us a small one off payment or a monthly contribution.
Thanks for stopping by. Please help us continue and support us by tipping/donating to folking.com via
You must be logged in to post a comment.