Salut! Live

We can return later to this glaring example of a country imposing economic sanctions on itself, an own goal that had even an arch-Brexiter, Roger Daltrey, howling with rage and signing an open letter to the Government in protest at what he had effectively if unwittingly voted for.

McQusid’s pedigree is cosmopolitan enough to stun any self-respecting xenophobe into appalled silence. Born in Madrid to an American mother and Spanish father, brought up in Chicago and then based for 13 years in Ireland, she is now settled in rural Cornwall with her Irish husband and their two children.

Photograph: Mawgan Lewis

She is a multi-instrumentalist and sings like a dream, with a voice of great clarity and power. Hear and watch her lockdown recording sessions at the village church of St Buryan, not far from her home, and you are as far from easy listening as seems possible. The songs demand concentration but the effort is repaid with a performance of real quality. And if you want more familiar sounds, look up clips of her versions of Bill Withers's Lean on Me, gloriously a cappella, or Ewan MacColl's First Time Ever I Saw Your Face .

After her prolonged touring, McQuaid hopes to record a new album in a cavernous derelict garage adjoining her Cornish home. If all goes to plan, including the renovation of her makeshift recording studio, the album will be released next year.

Those concert dates are as follows (see https://sarahmcquaid.com/tour for full details):

Feb 21    Viersen: Königsburg Süchteln
Feb 22    Ham: Celtic Art Gallery vzw Huiskamerconcert
Feb 23    Nieuw- en Sint Joosland: Theater De Wegwijzer
Feb 25    Bad Elster: König Albert Theater - Theatercafè
Feb 28    Dresden: Dixiebahnhof
Mar 1      Suhl: Kulturbaustelle
Mar 6      Neuwied: Folk on the Rhine @The Thirsty Lion
Mar 8      Hohenstein-Meidelstetten: Adler Meidelstetten
Mar 10    Wiesbaden: Der Weinländer
Mar 13    Mainz: mayence acoustique
Mar 14    Herne: Folk im Schollbrockhaus
Mar 15    Achterveld: Theater Schaapskooi Agteveld
Mar 16    Lippenhuizen: PiterPodium Lippenhuizen
Mar 17    Rupelmonde: ’t Loze Vissertje
Mar 21    Schleswig: St.-Johannis-Kloster vor Schleswig
Mar 22    Wilster: Kulturhaus Wilster
Mar 23    Eibergen: De Oude Mattheüs
Apr 24     Tullamore: Esker Arts Centre
Apr 25     Cavan: Townhall Arts Centre
Apr 26     Lisburn: Island Arts Centre
Apr 27     Bangor: The Court House
Apr 29     Navan: Solstice Arts Centre
May 1      Castlebar: Linenhall Arts Centre
May 2      Borrisoleigh: Finn’s Folk Club (Bandroom Lane Sessions)
May 3      Tramore: Coastguard Cultural Centre
May 7      Birmingham: Red Lion Folk Club
May 8      Horsley: The Hearth
May 9      Wooler: The Cheviot Centre
May 10    Penrith: Lazonby Village Hall
May 11    Appleby: Dufton Village Hall
May 14    Arisaig: Astley Hall
May 15    Strathcarron: Applecross Community Hall
May 16    Stonehaven Folk Club
May 17    Seil Island Community Hall
May 18    Isle of Lismore Public Hall
May 21    Edinburgh: The Kitchen Sings
May 22    Leigh Film Factory
May 23    Stafford: Chebsey Parish Hall
May 24    Bradford: Black Dyke Mills Heritage Venue
May 25    Melton Constable: Swanton Novers Village Hall
May 28    Gloucester: The Folk of Gloucester
May 29    Southampton: The Chapel Sessions
May 30    Bordon: Phoenix Theatre & Arts Centre
May 31    Felixstowe: Two Sisters Arts Centre
Jun 1       Coleford: Forest Folk Club
Jun 4       Swindon Arts Centre
Jun 5       Abertillery: The Met
Jun 6       Lostwithiel Concert Series
Jun 8       Bradninch Music Festival

"Yes, Brexit is a major pain," she tells me. "I’ve just submitted my carnet application for the European and Irish tours, at a cost of just over £350 an administration fee for documentation for shows all equipment moved from the UK to the EU and back again].

"Luckily I’m an Irish citizen and in any case all the EU countries I perform in are far more welcoming to visiting musicians than the UK is — but it’s still a real pain, and has also forced me to cut way back on the amount of merch I bring over with me in order to minimise customs costs. So maddening."

Not maddening at all is the sound of Sarah McQuaid's guitar and accompaniment, beautifully captured in the church recordings produced and engineered by her manager Martin Stansbury:

McQuaid says she owes a huge debt of gratitude for helping her development as a songwriter rather than "a folk singer who happened to write an occasional song" to another Cornish settler, Zoë Pollock, who wrote and sang the 1991 top five hit, Sunshine On A Rainy Day.

They became friends after meeting at the school gate. "Through working with Zoë I not only learned a hell of a lot about the craft of songwriting, but also just the fact of someone of her calibre wanting to co-write with me was what finally gave me the confidence to start focusing on my own original material," she says.

Let's end with one of those covers McQuaid also does so well, Lean on Me recorded live in the Crandall public library - no relation to the C Randall writing this piece - in Glens Falls, New York state in 2019.

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