From her beginnings as a music critic turned folk singer, Sarah McQuaid has evolved into a mature artist with important thoughts to ponder then sing about. It is quite easy to get lost in her music for an hour or more on her last two albums, both live performances. If you thought it could not get any better than “The St. Buryan Sessions” (2021), it probably has not, but “Walking into White, Live in Rapid City” (2025) may very well be its equal. Both were recorded under her own Shovel and a Spade imprint. McQuaid shares, “I’ve always been a solo performer, and I’m really happy that I finally managed to make an album that was also a solo performance, so that I didn’t have anything or anybody to hide behind and just had to bare my soul and be completely honest. And I do feel that I’ve managed to bring something new to the songs by recording them in that way.” There is a moment in “The St. Buryan Sessions” where you take an audible breath, listening to the entrancing music and the way it’s mic’d to bring out the lustre of her vocals. You might almost say out loud to no one in particular, “Oh, that’s how a live recording should sound.”
One of music’s most reliable and empathetic songwriters, McQuaid has made five studio albums along with the two live records, the last featuring songs from her wonderful 2015 release “Walking into White” that were the result of playing the complete album live several times over the years. Those are warm, introspective, and stunningly gorgeous songs, many-faceted gems of love and hope, heartfelt and beautifully crafted.
McQuaid was born in Spain, grew up in Chicago, lived for a long time in Ireland and now lives just outside the village of St Buryan in Cornwall, England. She has been a full-time musician since 2007 but was performing professionally for many years before that. “I’ve been a solo artist since the late 1990s,” she said, “but performed in the late 1980s and early to mid-1990s with a traditional Irish band called Carnloch. See her full biography here.
For the first song on her mini-gig, McQuaid is playing an acoustic guitar custom-made by luthier Andy Manson in January 2008. On the second, she is playing an Ibanez Artist electric that was initially given to her on long-term loan by her late friend and mentor, Michael Chapman. “He phoned me up ahead of the recording of my 2018 album “If We Dig Any Deeper It Could Get Dangerous” (which he produced) and said “I’m UPS-ing you that red electric guitar of mine — I want you to write some songs on it” — so I did! And I am very grateful to his wife Andru for kindly allowing me to buy it from her for the same price he’d paid for it many years earlier — far less than its actual value, which I wouldn’t have been able to afford.”
On the third song, McQuaid is playing a vintage Premier Olympic floor tom drum that she bought from eBay, and on the fourth song she is playing a Korg SV2 Stage Vintage Piano. “It has a real live tube valve for that authentic vintage keyboard sound,” she added. “I was able to buy it thanks to a very generous Cultivator Creative Investment Grant from Creative Kernow (which in turn is funded by the European Regional Development Fund, Cornwall Council, Arts Council England and H.M. Government) — plus a little help from the very kind artist relations people at Korg UK.”
McQuaid recorded this in a derelict garage adjoining her house. “I’m in the process of converting to a home studio with help from very kind donors to my GoFundMe campaign which is still in progress. The builders have finished tanking the walls and repairing and insulating the roof; the next step will be new doors and windows.”
And to Americana UK readers, the next step will be to push play and enjoy Sarah McQuaid in her element. After you enjoy what you hear, click on the link to browse her catalogue. Below, she describes the four songs in this set.
1- ‘The Tide’ is from my 2015 album “Walking into White” and also on my new archival release “Walking into White Live in Rapid City”, released last May after my wonderful sound engineer/manager Martin Stansbury discovered the live recording on an old hard drive. It is inspired by the 3 books in the Arthur Ransome “Swallows and Amazons” series that are set in the Norfolk Broads — tidally influenced waterways where if your boat is in the wrong place when the tide goes out, you get stuck in the mud … and have to wait for the tide to come back in and lift you out of the mud you’re stuck in. I trust the metaphor is obvious!
2- ‘The Day Of Wrath, That Day’ is an instrumental piece from my 2018 album “If We Dig Any Deeper It Could Get Dangerous”.
3- ‘One Sparrow Down’ is also on both my 2018 album “If We Dig Any Deeper It Could Get Dangerous” and my 2021 live-in-lockdown album, “The St. Buryan Sessions”. Another metaphorical song — this time about a territorial bird who’s busy attacking his own reflection in the windowpane while a salivating cat watches from inside.
4- ‘When I Held Up My Phone to the Sky’ is a new song inspired by the night of the Northern Lights in May 2024. I hope to record this one on my next album.
Thank you so much for this, Dean and all at Americana UK! So so grateful.