“A h, the DADGAD lady,” afriend responded when Itold him that I was aboutto interview Sarah

McQuaid. That open-strung guitar style iscertainly an important element of Sarah’srenown in Ireland, but, as we discussedher life and career to date and her plansfor the future, quaffing coffee in ariverside café in Boyle, the location of ourmeeting seemed very apposite. For thecafé occupies the former gate lodge ofFrybrook House, a Georgian mansionconstructed for Henry Fry whoestablished a weaving industry in theCounty Roscommon town, and Sarah, likemany a fine singer, well knows how toturn events and life-changes into afascinating tapestry.

When we met she was halfwaythrough an Irish tour, accompanied only bya driver and soundman, which formed thehalfway point in a six-month schedule thathad also encompassed Holland, the UKand the US. But there was no obvious lackof energy and her enthusiasm for hermusic remained undimmed.

Sarah’s background is cosmopolitan,to say the least. She was born in Madridto a Spanish father and US mother andmoved to Chicago when she was three.She was educated in Philadelphia andFrance (where she discovered a passionfor traditional music), moved again to Ire-land in 1994 (working in publishing for 11years and also writing on music regularlyfor Hot Press magazine and Dublin’sEvening Herald), and finally shifted toCornwall in 2007.

A pianist from the age of three and aguitarist since nine, Sarah was persuadedto adopt the DADGAD guitar style sometwo decades ago by a French musician at afestival in Britanny as being more suitableto her chosen medium of Irish music.Proofreading Steáfán Hannigan’s bodhrántutor for the late Ossian Publications led tocontact with its chief John Loesberg. Herparting throwaway comment, “if you everfancy a book about DADGAD guitar let meknow ...” resulted in the demand “Hey,come here and sit down!” Her The IrishDADGAD Guitar Book still sells in morethan decent numbers some 15 years sinceits original publication, though “makingthe accompanying cassette was agonising– I had to record 32 tracks in one day.”

Around the same time Sarahembarked on a solo career in Ireland – amajor highspot being a tour supportingLuka Bloom – and having sold her house inthe States “thought I could either buysomewhere in Dublin or make an album.”The city’s estate agents received the bum’s

rush and her debut, When Two LoversMeet, originally released on her own label,appeared in 1997 and was reissued by thelong defunct Round Tower two years later,by which time Sarah had become deeplyinvolved in her publishing career. Saidalbum consisted almost entirely of tradi-tional songs and tunes, apart from theself-penned Charlie’s Gone Home, andbegan a still active collaboration with pro-ducer and fellow guitarist and songwriterGerry O’Beirne. Well received at the time,it received reinvigoration when reissuedby Gael Linn a decade later.

By then Sarah was the mother of twosmall children, keeping contact with themusic business via journalism, but in 2006she was invited to give a workshop at theStrandhill Guitar Festival in County Sligo.“I’d been saying ‘no’ to lots of things, butthey said ‘By the way, you’ll be co-present-ing the workshop with Dick Gaughan’ andI thought how am I going to feel if I sayno to this?” Dick encouraged her to thinkagain about her musical career and sheresolved to do so, determining to startgigging again in the spring of 2007. GaelLinn’s reissue of her debut album provid-ed further impetus and resulted in herappearance, without any gigs booked,on John Kelly’s hugely influential RTÉTV show The View. As a result the diarywas soon filled with bookings.

H er reinvigorated solo career hadbegun and and she has been afull-time musician ever since.The second album, I Won’t Go

Home ’Til Morning (2008) which drewdeeply from the songs her motherlearned while participating in Quakerwork camps as a teenager in Virginia,was again produced by GerryO’Beirne and featured the contrastingfiddlework of Máire Breatnach andRosie Shipley. In the same year, andthanks to her now Cornish base,she recorded Crow CoyoteBuffalo as the duo Mama withZoë Pollock (yep, the sameZoë of 1991 pop chart-topper Sunshine On ARainy Day), an album asequally well reviewedas its predecessor.

Sarah beganwork on herthird album,The Plum TreeAnd The Rosein June(again withGerryO’Beirnebehind the

desk and due for release in early 2012) andher Irish tour saw her exploring the variouspossibilities of its contents. These rangefrom Spanish traditional songs learned inher childhood, others co-authored withGerry, a John Dowland piece (originallywritten for voice and lute) Can’t She ExcuseMy Wrongs, a reworking of John Martyn’sexquisite Solid Air (without the WatkinsEchoplex) and the traditional County Downsong The Next Market Day. She’s also dueto be touring the UK in November so,should Sarah be passing your way, be pre-pared for some brilliant musician-ship, a warm and welcomingstage presence and a voice asrich, matured and knowing asthe finest thrice-distilled Irishmalt whiskey.

www.sarahmcquaid.com

17 f

root salad

Sarah McQuaidThe DADGAD guitar lady’s lifetime of travels now finds

her living in Cornwall. Geoff Wallis caught her in Ireland!

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