Venue:
Castle Hedingham Memorial Hall
Date: 21/01/2023
On a freezing January night we travelled to deepest Essex, to Castle Hedingham, home of a Norman castle, rows of skewwhiff half-timbered cottages and Castle Hedingham Memorial Hall. I’ve been to village hall gigs before, but none I think which began and finished with the audience being told how helpful it would be if we stacked up our chairs before leaving.
We were there to see American/British/Irish singer songwriter Sarah McQuaid, who has been tirelessly championed on these pages by @Colin-H , playing one a few dates in England before heading to Ireland then the continent (she’s in Twickenham tonight if you’re quick). Unlikely though the venue seems, the barrel-roofed hall turned out to have lovely acoustics, helped by excellent work from Sarah’s sound man.
I don’t why it took me so long to heed Colin’s recommendation, but when I finally did I found Sarah’s music right up my street. She plays solo on acoustic and electric guitar, and on keyboard, with the sound sometimes filled out by loops and on one occasion the local church clock bells. The arrangements are interesting, the songs intriguing and her voice marvellous. Her between song chat is warm and engaging too, even is she struggled to get animal noises out of the crowd as requested for one song. I sometimes gauge small, intimate gigs by how often I close my eyes and just soak in the sound, and by that standard this show was a real winner.
Be sure to see her if she appears in a church hall near you.
The audience:
Broadly a selection of Castle Hedingham locals I suspect, well-heeled and tending to retirement age (with at least one exception mentioned below).
It made me think..
When I went to buy a t-shirt in the interval a child of about 9 was there before me. “Are you really famous?” she asked Sarah. “Not really”, was the honest reply, but you can add her name to list we all keep of musicians who really should be a lot more famous than they are.
Alas nowhere near me.
Another time I hope! If you’d like to be added to my newsletter mailing list to be notified of tours, new albums etc, just sign up at https://sarahmcquaid.com — I only send a few newsletters a year so you won’t be bombarded!
Already on @sarahmcquaid.
I have fingers and eyes crossed.
Wonderful stuff, Gatz – glad you had a good time! 🙂 Sarah’s sound man (and manager, driver, producer, minder) Martin Sainsbury has just mastered the forthcoming ‘Radio Times: Lindisfarne at the BBC’ 8CD set for Repertoire and is mastering a few tracks for the forthcoming Legends of Tomorrow anthology. He’s a relaxed fellow… which is just as well, as Sarah is a coiled spring of energy…
Here she is, at the Hop…
That one’s a favourite of mine, and also the logo on the t-shirt I bought. She started the second half of the show with it. I was amused to,learn it is quite literal, and the spark of the song was one of Sarah’s children was digging a big hole in the garden.
Her son is indeed unusually concerned with looming disasters in the world below. His fear of geological activity in Yellowstone National Park inspired this one – another masterpiece, I feel. Is it in her current set?
yep!
EXCELLENT NEWS! Portaferry, here we come… 🙂
❤️
New to stacking village hall chairs? Welcome to my world! You should take up Eurobal; it’s as integral as the contributory buffet and the raffle.
😂
Huge thanks Gatz for all the kind words, so glad you were able to get to the gig!
Sarah’s lovely and Martin’s a proper gent; an evening in their company is an evening well spent. Happily, I’ll see them both in Norton St. Philip in April!
Norton St Philip? Surely he was a villain in some episode of ‘Midsomer Murders’ or ‘Father Brown’?
Couldn’t come up with a last line to rhyme with April?
Arf! My thought exactly…
‘if there be showers and umbrellas don’t work then a cape will’ 🙂
If there was a gig within 50 miles of Birmingham I would have been there but alas not.
Sarah if you can’t get z gig at the Kitchen Garden cafe in Birmingham try the Hub at Lichfiekd. Marvellous venue.
Next time maybe
Tickets purchased for Glór in Ennis next Wednesday. I’m quite the novice when it comes to Sarah’s music but the excellent review by @Gatz and the clips above intrigued me and Glór is only a fifteen minute drive from my house, so it would be impolite not to show a face. I’m looking forward to the gig, @sarahmcquaid – enjoy your short visit to Ennis. If you’re in need of a nice breakfast / brunch, I highly recommend Sweet’n’Green near the Friary. They do a great avocado on sourdough with poached eggs.
It’ll be Glórious.
Now why didn’t I think of that, Colin? Good one…
Really? Surely I can’t be the first to shoehorn the word into that pun!?
UPerhaps not but I’m not very imaginative, Colin. It’s new to me…I’m going to use it all the time now.
Brilliant! I’ve rarely encountered anyone so happy with one of my laboured puns 😀
I saw someone today post the Tequila Mockingbird pun, I think they’d just coined it then and imagined no one had thought of it before.
I first heard it in Still Crazy, a film with Bill Nighy, Jimmy Nail and others as members of a rock band on the comeback trail. That was late last century, and I doubt it was a new line then.
Ramsey Lewis had an album in 77 called Tequila Mockingbird. It was probably in use before then.
Maybe not, Hubes – I’ve just keyword searched the British Library’s subscription online British newspaper archive and there is no example in print (extensive though not total re British regional and some national papers) before the Lewis book.
Thank for checking Col, I just can’t believe that someone didn’t make the pun in the years between the book publication in 1960 and Ramsey Lewis’ album in 77 though.
I should have gone last time when she played Luton. For guitar nerds that’s an Ibanez Artist she’s playing – I still have mine which I bought new in 1976.
Michael Chapman’s, I believe…presumably now either the property of Sarah, or on extended loan from Mr Chapman’s estate. Borrowed to play on the “If We Dig Any Deeper…” album, which Mr Chapman produced.
Basically a double cut Les Paul but with 24 frets. Mahogany body, maple cap, ebony finger board. Great guitar. Twang Jr uses it for ‘orrible detuned death metal stuff.
Actually hers is a slightly newer one than mine, with the neck inlays and two little switches.
As this thread has popped up again, if you were thinking of going to the Naas show at The Moat Theatre on Thursday and paying on the door then please buy tickets online now. It’s in danger of being pulled if more advance tickets aren’t sold by tomorrow.
I can confirm that the Moat show is definitely going ahead! A small but satisfactory surge of tickets sold…
Just back from the Ennis show@Colin-H / @Gatz – I am so glad your thread caught my eye last week Gatz. What a wonderful performer Sarah is and lovely person too! Her own songs are so heartfelt and were a revelation. Great choice of cover versions too, one in particular was mesmerising. The between-song chat put the songs into context and the small audience were attentive and appreciative. I could gush on, but suffice it to say, Sarah was a stranger to me a week ago and now I possess three albums and have seen her in concert. Already looking forward to when she swings around again…If you’re reading this, thanks again @sarahmcquaid
Excellent! Glad you enjoyed it, Maxmeister. I’m guessing the mesmerising cover was Michael Chapman’s ‘Rabbit Hills’?
No that was very good, if unfamiliar to me, but her cover of John Martyn’s Solid Air was magnificent I thought.
Ah. I don’t think it much of a song, myself – nor its author much of a person, so I switched off for that one.
Excellent! I’m glad you had a good time. Solid Air was the pick of the covers for me too, and that’s not what I would have guessed if I’d been shown a list of them before the show.
A difficult man by all accounts Colin, but some great work as well.