I’m sure plenty of you out there managed to catch the live concerts from Cara Dillon and Sam Lakeman during lockdown, thousands have now seen the concerts which were left online for nearly a year. A selection of songs from those concerts are now to be released as an album: “Live at Cooper Hall”.
Two concerts were held, both at Cooper Hall in Somerset during August and October and recorded by Grammy-winning recording engineer Dom Monks. The concerts were then broadcast online via Youtube and Facebook (including Folk Radio’s Facebook Page). We interviewed Cara and Sam about the first concert here, in which they spoke of their reasons for recording the concerts at Cooper Hall and using local crew and suppliers:
Cara: Cooper Hall is a beautiful, private venue owned and run by Morag McLaren. It’s a charitable foundation which Morag uses to provide educational and performance opportunities for creative projects. We’re extremely lucky to have it on our doorstep and we recorded much of “Wanderer” and “Upon A Winter’s Night” there a few years ago because it has a stunning Steinway grand piano. Morag didn’t hesitate to offer the space for us to use knowing that all our live work had vanished in an instant. That is what initially led us to think about staging a concert and not just filming ourselves at home in our own studio.
Sam: Yep, as soon as we made that decision it was clear that this could become something that might play a small part in helping other people. Rather than us just cobbling together a shoot with a couple of iPhones with me recording it on my laptop, we chose to pull in the amazing talents and services of some local people.
For the album, Sam and Cara have chosen their favourite 16 songs from the two performances. So here’s a great keepsake for those that did see it and for those that didn’t, now is your only chance to hear these recordings which include two previously unreleased songs: “The Water Is Wide” and “Come Flying With Me” alongside other favourites from their catalogue.
One of the songs featured is the fan favourite “As I Roved Out”:
Live at Cooper Hall Tracks
- The Water Is Wide
- As I Roved Out
- False, False
- She’s Like The Swallow
- Blackwater Side
- The Tern And The Swallow
- Garden Valley
- Come Flying With Me
- Bright Morning Star
- The Verdant Braes Of Skreen
- The Hill Of Thieves
- The Faughan Side
- The Shores Of Lough Bran
- Black Is The Colour
- The Maid Of Culmore
- Dubhdara
Live at Cooper Hall will be released on CD on August 6th with signed copies available for PRE-ORDER from Cara’s website.
You can also now book tickets to see Cara performing live this year:
Cara Dillon Live Dates
September 4th – CHIPPENHAM , Neeld Arts Centre
September 18th – TEDDINGTON, Landmark Arts Centre
September 24th – HAVANT, The Spring
September 25th – CAMBRIDGE, Junction
September 26th – EAST GRINSTEAD, Chequer Mead
September 29th – KENDAL, Brewery
September 30th – SALFORD, Lowry
October 1st – SOUTHPORT, The Atkinson
October 15th – MILVERTON, Music Club
November 3rd – CARDIFF, Acapela Studio
November 6th – HAILSHAM, Pavilion Theatre
November 19th – LYME REGIS, Marine Theatre
Ticket links here: https://www.caradillon.co.uk/live