From: Sarah McQuaid [sarah_at_sarahmcquaid_dot_com]
Sent: 18 April 2017 13:34
Subject: FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Lifetime Achievement Award for Sarah
McQuaid at Ards International Guitar Festival
For
the attention of Beau Webber - KentFolk
FOR
IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Lifetime Achievement Award for Sarah McQuaid at Ards
International Guitar Festival
At last week’s Ards International Guitar Festival,
Sarah McQuaid was presented with the festival’s annual Lifetime Achievement
Award. Previous recipients over the festival’s 20-year history include
legendary guitarists Davey Graham, John Renbourn, John Martyn, Arty McGlynn,
Martin Simpson, Gordon Giltrap, Pierre Bensusan and Martin Carthy.
Sarah recalls her initially annoyed reaction when
compère Ralph McLean of BBC Radio Ulster and festival director Ernie McMillen
of Avalon Guitars came out to present the award:
“I’d just finished my set and left the stage, and the
crowd was calling for an encore, but before I could come back out from the
wings, Ralph McLean and Ernie McMillen walked onstage and started talking about
the Lifetime Achievement Award.
“I just thought, ‘Oh, rats, now they’ll bring out some
big-name guitarist to accept this bloody award and I won’t get to do my
encore!’ Never in a million years did I think it would go to me. I was totally
and completely floored. It’s a very, very big deal to be placed on a level with
so many of my musical heroes.”
And she did get to do an encore after all, performing a
cover of Ewan MacColl’s ‘The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face’, which she also
recorded on her fourth solo album Walking Into White
(Waterbug, 2015).
“Every year since 1999, Ards International Guitar
Festival has awarded a Lifetime Achievement Award to an artist performing at
the Festival,” explains the Ards Arts Centre’s Emily Crawford, co-director of
the festival along with Ernie McMillen and Darren Porter. “There has never been
a female recipient of the award, and with an artist of the calibre of Sarah
McQuaid on our bill, it was an easy decision to make in 2017!
“A favourite of local audiences in Ards, Sarah
has a true gift and captivates the audience with seamless playing and an
effortlessly enchanting voice,” Crawford continues. “She and her guitar become
one beautiful sound, and her goosebump-inducing rendition of ‘The First Time
Ever I Saw Your Face’ was the perfect end to an outstanding performance.”
Ernie McMillen agrees: “It is rare in the guitar world
to find a player who displays genius without arrogance, and who shares their
hard-won skill and knowledge so selflessly,” he says. “I get to see many
specialist guitarists up close, and many over-perform. It’s honey for the soul
to witness Sarah McQuaid perform.”
Sarah McQuaid is currently hard at work writing songs
for her fifth solo album, to be produced by folk icon Michael Chapman and
released in 2018 (once again on the US-based Waterbug label) with album launch
tours in the UK, Ireland, Continental Europe and the USA.
She also hopes to pen a sequel to The Irish DADGAD
Guitar Book, the popular tutor she authored on the alternative
guitar tuning she uses exclusively – originally published in 1995 and still the
standard reference on the subject, selling worldwide through Novello &
Co./The Music Sales Group and Hal Leonard Corp.
In addition to her Ards appearance, April sees Sarah
performing at the prestigious Costa del Folk Festival on the Spanish island of
Ibiza and donating her services to a charity concert to benefit her local
village hall in Cornwall. Summer and early-autumn appearances include an
outdoor concert at Penzance’s Penlee Park, the Llangollen International Musical
Eisteddfod, Stainsby Festival, Evesham Arts Centre, Faversham Hop Festival,
Southdowns Folk Festival, Stroud Folk Weekend and Rye Arts Festival.
Details of all events can be found at http://www.sarahmcquaid.com/tour and http://www.facebook.com/sarahmcquaidmusic/events/.
Hi-res photos, album cover artwork and PDF press pack
available for download from
http://www.sarahmcquaid.com/media_kit/
Photos of Sarah with the award and its
maker/designer, ceramic artist Andrew Cooke, are also available upon request.
To arrange interviews with Sarah or request a copy of
Sarah’s latest album, please contact Pat Tynan on pattynan_at_btconnect_dot_com or by
phone at +44 1895 631336.
To contact Sarah directly, email sarah_at_sarahmcquaid_dot_com or call +44
7999 868758.
-ends-