SINGER CARA SET TO WIN HEBCELT HEARTS
Interview release
Hebridean Celtic Festival
Year of Homecoming 2014
- Cara Dillon set to make HebCelt debut
- Acclaimed Irish singer to showcase new album
- Island festival will ‘feel like home’ says star
There won’t be an erupting volcano or a forest of giant trees, but Cara Dillon is expecting a memorable experience at the Hebridean Celtic Festival thanks to a recommendation by one of the biggest names in folk music.
The award-winning Irish artist will be one of the main draws at HebCelt when she and husband and music partner Sam Lakeman make their festival debuts on the main stage on Friday 19 July.
If they needed any persuasion, a few choice words from Sam’s brother, the internationally-renowned singer songwriter Seth Lakeman, certainly helped.
“He said ‘It’s mad. Totally mad, an amazing gig. You have to do it’”, said Cara. “So I am.”
The 19th HebCelt will run from 16-19 July in Stornoway in the island of Lewis and will feature 36 performers in its biggest ever programme, including headliners Levellers, Big Country and Donnie Munro. Cara says the location will make her feel at home.
“The main attraction for me is in visiting a place that's so remote and isolated from the regular throughput of music and culture. It reminds me of Inishowen in Co Donegal where I spent my summers as a child where the pace of life is very different and when music does happen to make an appearance it's a really big occasion and was always the best craic.
“People's opportunities to see other performers are so limited that they're not going to let anything get in the way of having a good time....I really like that atmosphere. It's the same in Orkney and Shetland where I've played before.
“I've been very lucky to have had some incredible festival experiences - like performing in a 3,000-year-old Greek amphitheatre with Mount Etna erupting in the night sky as a backdrop, or playing amongst the giant redwoods in California, or sharing the stage with international singers in South Korea.
“But the bottom line is that the best experiences come from a combination of the audience and the band and that can happen anywhere...village hall, marquee, field or car park.”
The HebCelt audience will hear music from her new album, A Thousand Hearts, which was released in May and was keenly anticipated, with two showcase concerts in London in April sold out well in advance.
The songs have an unexpected common theme which Cara and Sam realised only after the album was completed: “The songs come together very quickly and Sam has almost fully formed ideas on the treatment and instrumentation as soon as we've finished the first few demos.”
“What's interesting about this collection is that after we'd finished recording and were looking for an album title we realised all the songs were about different states of the human heart, which then led us to the title ‘A Thousand Hearts’. The songs are about unrequited love, death, faith, lust, a broken relationship, pure love, emigration and longing for someone who's far away. They pretty much capture every condition of the heart....totally unplanned.”
The resulting fifth album is a long-awaited follow up to 2009’s critically-acclaimed Hill of Thieves which won Album of the Year at the Radio 2 Folk Awards: “Fans have been hounding Sam and I for a new album for over five years and we've never been happier than with what we've produced this time around.
“As soon as our twins were born back in 2006 we set out to make music our passion again rather than allowing it to become a job (which is sometimes inevitable). As a result we're energised by the music and the output is all the better for it. We're so excited to be releasing another album again and the thought of performing new material is a real treat.”
Cara’s career has been peppered with highlights, such as singing the title song to Disney’s animated movie Tinker Bell and the Great Fairy Rescue in 2010 (“I got to sing songs that ooze the Disney magic and it was fantastic and a real privilege”) and singing live to a television audience of several hundred million at the opening ceremony of the 2006 Ryder Cup. She has also topped the charts with dance remixes, collaborated with stars including Richard Hawley, Mike Oldfield and Sinead O’Connor, and presented her songs with full orchestral backing.
However her future ambitions are straightforward: “My goal has always been to bring whatever music I'm performing to as many people as I can. I'm not precious about how that's achieved and I'm not precious about what type of music I dip into.
“I'm a singer and it would be ignorant to say that I only ever wanted to sing traditional music. I love all types of music and I've been lucky to contribute to other projects.”
This year HebCelt was selected as one of the top 10 UK summer festivals for the fourth year in succession by the influential music magazine Songlines.
NOTES TO EDITORS
The 2013 HebCelt was the most successful in its history with ticket sales showing an increase of over 30 per cent on 2012. Just over half the 16,000 festival-goers came from outside the Hebrides and the huge influx of visitors from across Europe, the US, Australia and New Zealand, helped generate around £1 million for the local economy
Last year HebCelt was also hailed as one of the greenest festivals in the world after being the only Scottish event to receive an Outstanding award from environmental campaign group A Greener Festival. In addition, it was shortlisted in the Greener Festival category in the UK Festival Awards and in the Best Independent Festival category in the AIM Independent Music Awards.
In 2011 it was ranked Best Large Festival at the industry-sponsored Scottish Event Awards and it won Best Event of the Year award at the MG Alba Scots Trad Music Awards in 2004 and 2009.
For more information contact
John Ross
Lucid PR
01463 724593; 07730 099617
johnross@lucidmessages.com
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