Culture
19 Apr 22

Sarah McQuaid to perform intimate gig and workshop in Howth's Abbey Tavern

Irish-American artist Sarah McQuaid will also be joined by renowned songwriter Carl Corcoran as a support act.

UK-based musician Sarah McQuaid is set to perform an intimate concert and deliver a special guitar workshop at The Abbey Tavern, Howth on Saturday April 23rd.

The singer-songwriter will be joined on stage by music veteran Carl Corcoran, who wrote several hit songs in the 1970s under the moniker Jamie Stone. In 1974, his debut album New Day was awarded 6 RMI Awards (precursor of the Choice Awards) including Artist of the Year. In 2017, he was appointed Course Director for the MA in Songwriting at Limerick University. He now divides his time between his university position, promoting various artists, songwriting, and occasionally performing.

Sarah McQuaid embarked on her first tour of the US and Canada with the Chicago Children’s Choir at the age of twelve. After moving to Ireland, she launched her debut solo album, When Two Lovers Meet, with a performance on John Kelly’s popular Friday evening arts show The View. Since then she has released six solo albums, with 2018’s If We Dig Any Deeper It Could Get Dangerous being named as one of Hotpress’ Folk albums of the year.

McQuaid has also been recognised for her innovative use of DADGAD tuning and is the author of The Irish DADGAD Guitar Book. The DADGAD tuning technique is an alternative style of guitar tuning that is often associated with Celtic music. Instead of tuning to the usual pitches of E2 A2 D3 G3 B3 E4 this technique tunes from low to high using D2 A2 D3 G3 A3 D4 . The style was first popularised by British folk guitarist Davey Graham and has since found other proponents in Jimmy Page, Neil Young, Lankum, and Rory Gallagher.

In addition to her evening performance at the Abbey Tavern, Sarah McQuaid will be giving a 90-minute workshop on DADGAD tuning earlier in the day at the same venue.

Tickets for Sarah McQuaid’s show at the Abbey Tavern, Howth, on Saturday April 23rd are available HERE.

Sarah McQuaid’s workshop is only available through advanced booking and tickets can be booked from [email protected]

Listen to The St. Buryan Sessions below: