Globetrotting singer-songwriter Sarah McQuaid to perform in Matlock Bath
Born in Spain, raised in Chicago and now living in rural England after spending many years in Ireland, Sarah is as multinational as she is multitalented.
With her new recording and rehearsal studio nearing completion, Cornwall-based singer/songwriter Sarah McQuaid once again out on the road, and is set to perform on Sunday 22 November 2026 at The Grand Pavilion Matlock Bath.
Currently on tour in the USA, she’ll be embarking in November on a short UK run that will bring her 2026 total to 118 concerts between mid-January and the end of November: an average of one show every 2.6 days.
“It’s been quite the marathon”, she admits, “but having put every penny I had plus a whole lot of pennies I didn’t have into the studio, I basically took every gig I could get.
“On the plus side, it’s been fantastic to get the opportunity to try out my new material on live audiences before I record it. Pretty much every song has changed and developed along the way, so that’ll make our task a lot easier when we finally do get started on the next album.
“And in the meantime, even in its unfinished state we’ve already been using the studio for rehearsals, without which there’s no way some of the new songs would have been concert-ready.
“For example, there’s one where I start off a cappella, then bring in my acoustic guitar, then use looping to layer up percussion, keyboards, electric guitar and harmony vocals. That one needed a LOT of rehearsing, but it’s working beautifully now!”
Throughout her concerts, Sarah moves between the battery of instruments onstage with ease and grace, chatting amiably to the audience between songs and occasionally prevailing on them to lend their own voices to the mix.
Her original compositions — which themselves span a wide range of styles, from contemplative ballads to playful blues to atmospheric instrumentals — predominate, but she also sprinkles in the odd folk song, evergreen classic or unexpected contemporary cover.
Born in Spain, raised in Chicago and now living in rural England after spending many years in Ireland, Sarah is as multinational as she is multitalented. She met her longtime manager Martin Stansbury soon after moving in 2007 to Cornwall, in the UK’s southwesternmost corner.
Outside the gates of her children’s school, Sarah struck up a friendship with a fellow mum who turned out to be Zoë Pollock, writer and performer of 1991 UK Top 5 hit single “Sunshine On A Rainy Day.”
The pair soon found themselves co-writing songs, and in January 2009 they released the critically acclaimed album Crow Coyote Buffalo under the band name Mama. That album was produced and recorded by Stansbury, who’d collaborated previously with Zoë on a variety of projects.
Ever since then, for nearly 17 years now, Stansbury has accompanied Sarah on all her tours, looking after everything from logistics to sound and stage lighting. “And he does all the driving,” laughs Sarah, “which is a good thing because I’m a terrible driver!”
Stansbury produced and recorded Sarah’s latest album The St Buryan Sessions, and has recently been recording and filming a series of “Garage Sessions” videos in the above-mentioned studio (formerly a derelict garage, hence the name). The first four of these can already be viewed on Sarah’s website and YouTube channel; a fifth is currently in the works, with more to come very soon.
Visit Sarah’s website – https://sarahmcquaid.com – for details of all tour dates, all her albums, and videos including a 10-minute video intro to the artist and her music.