Traditional Irish singer Cara Dillon will appear at Queen’s Hall on Thursday this week ahead of the official release of her new album in 2024.
Cara will unveil “Coming Home”, her first new material in almost six years, in which she effortlessly blurs the lines between spoken word and song to stunning effect.
She brings to life profoundly personal memories of her native County Derry and the people, places, and customs she holds closest to her heart.
Skilfully interspersed with songs from her catalogue throughout the set, join Cara and her band as she shares this truly unique and inspiring collection accompanied by original music written by Sam Lakeman. This will be a special opportunity to experience a revealing and emotive performance by the internationally acclaimed singer – and is not one to miss.
Cara has in recent years returned to her Irish roots creating fresh interpretations of traditional folk standards with stunning results. Cara and Sam have guested on some projects exploring surprising avenues.
In the late nineties, they worked on tracks with the likes of Kevin Shields (My Bloody Valentine), Richard Hawley and Robin Millar. Cara recorded the lead single, ‘Man In The Rain’, on Mike Oldfield’s Tubular Bells III and was a featured vocalist alongside Sinéad O’Connor on the Ghostland album. She guested on the title track to the hit movie Keeping Mum, starring Rowan Atkinson, Maggie Smith and Patrick Swayze, and sang live to a televised audience of several hundred million at the opening ceremony of the 2006 Ryder Cup. A remix of ‘Black Is The Colour’ became a hit on the dance music chart and was voted the #1 Trance track of 2006 in Mixmag. Cara also sang the lead single on DJ Judge Jules’ first solo album.
In 2010, she was asked to record the title track to Disney’s Tinker Bell and The Great Fairy Rescue in Abbey Road Studios and also narrated the opening sequence of the movie. Cara and Sam recorded a lullaby for the end credits of the movie called ‘Come Flying With Me’ and it has become a favourite in their live set. Again, for Disney, they recorded an original song to be played at the close of the night-time spectacular show, ‘Disney Dreams’, in Disneyland Paris entitled ‘Come Dream A Dream’. More recently Cara and Sam have performed live with orchestras as they explore and introduce new flavours to their back catalogue. To date they have shared the stage with the prestigious Scottish Symphony Orchestra, The Ulster Orchestra, The RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra, The BBC Concert Orchestra and their own creation, ‘The Orchestra of Ireland’.
- Cara Dillon – vocals
- Sam Lakeman – guitar/piano
- Nick Pini – bass
- Toby Shaer – fiddle/whistles/guitar
- Liz Hanks – cello
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