The St Buryan Sessions
Shove And A Spade, 2021
8/10
Listen to The St Buryan Sessions
This 6th album from the multi-instrumentalist and singer-songwriter Sarah McQuaid might be her most substantial to date, as she adjusts to the pandemic with a live recording in a church in the English village she calls home. The audience was empty, of course, as she plays multiple guitars and piano with her inimitable presence.
“Sweetness And Pain” starts the listen with expressive and poetic singing, where McQuaid’s flowing voice is without any instruments, and “The Sun Goes On Rising” follows with warm acoustic guitar accompanying the stirring vocals as a folk climate enters with much beauty.
Further on, “One Sparrow Down” uses a floor tom drum amid the powerful singing, while “What Are We Going To Do” displays agile guitar playing to complement McQuaid’s versatile delivery. “Time To Love”, a particularly lovely track, then gets dreamy with a bare quality of timeless and absorbing musicianship.
Landing near the end, “The Day Of Wrath, That Day” radiates reflective guitar work that brings a little tension into the atmospheric instrumental, and the aptly titled “Last Song” exits the listen with McQuaid navigating the intimate waters with precision and awe.
Martin Stansbury recorded the album, and did a superb job capturing McQuaid’s sublime delivery as the songs span her 20+ year career and she even tosses in a couple previously unrecorded covers. Though I rarely feel that live albums are a good starting point for the first time listener, no one is going to complain about their first taste of McQuaid if it happens to be this gorgeous body of work, and the longtime fans will of course be spending plenty of quality time with these 15 tracks.
Travels well with: Ana Egge- Between Us; Mark Erelli- Blindsided