Cara Dillon Coming Home Queen's Hall Edinburgh 23rd November 2023 Review
Cara Dillon was at the Queen’s Hall Edinburgh tonight, the last date on the current leg of her “Coming Home Tour” (which continues in Spring 2024). This show, promoting the new album of the same name, in Cara Dillon’s own words was “something a little different” and that meant less singing and a brave step into the public performance of her own poetry and spoken words.
Whilst some members of the audience were perhaps hoping for more of Cara’s timeless vocals, this evening’s performance was an intimate one and as Cara told us the stories behind the new words and songs on “Coming Home”, that gave us all an insight into who Cara Dillon really is as a person and where she draws her own personal strength and sense of identity from. The “Coming Home” book will also be available in early 2024.
“Coming Home” is Cara Dillon’s first new material in six years and the apprehension about how this change in format might be received by audiences was still showing a little this evening with, at times, almost disbelief that anyone would want to listen to her up until now private poetry and words. That apprehension was not needed, as the audience response to this tour and the new work with its mixture of personal recollections, spoken word, and songs has so far been nothing but positive.
Whatever Cara Dillon sings, whether that be traditional or contemporary, always has those unmistakable clear and at times almost ethereal vocals that make everything seem timeless, almost as if for a moment or two Cara is getting inspiration from somewhere just beyond what most of us experience.
Cara Dillon’s words are the same, a gift to notice the small details of everyday life that pass so many of us by unnoticed and the ability to let us, through her words, somehow see and connect with the people in those stories. Some people are, I think, here not only to tell stories but to act as a bridge to the stories and people of yesterday and in the retelling and the recalling of names make sure that people and events are never forgotten, and someone at sometime will also take Cara and her stories and continue the unbroken threads of this never-ending tapestry.
Family and faith are hugely important to Cara Dillon as are the many strong women that she remembers from her childhood and this is what “Coming Home” is really about, returning to those places and people that somehow give you that feeling of strength and security and how little, almost inconsequential, moments can somehow trigger these reconnections. In the songs on “Coming Home” - “Clear The Path”, “Coming Home”, “Carrageen Moss”, “Apron Strings”, “White Sheets, “The Well”, “Inishowen” and “Mysteries” (wrapped up in a little bit of Pachelbel's Canon), these stories and the people in them come alive with a seamless combination of Cara’s spoken words and vocals with original music and arrangements by Sam Lakeman (guitar and piano this evening too).
Not all memories are good ones though, and growing up in Northern Ireland during “The Troubles” has obviously left its mark upon Cara Dillon to this day.
Adding their own distinctive musical contributions to this new work are James Lindsay – bass, Toby Shaer - fiddle/whistles/guitar, and Liz Hanks – cello.
Hopefully this tour will help Cara Dillon take that next step and realise just how good her own words are and what a gift she has for spoken word performances alone and an ability to take us all into her world and the people that inhabit it whilst waiting for the next story to begin.
Review by Tom King © 2023
www.artsreviewsedinburgh.com
Whilst some members of the audience were perhaps hoping for more of Cara’s timeless vocals, this evening’s performance was an intimate one and as Cara told us the stories behind the new words and songs on “Coming Home”, that gave us all an insight into who Cara Dillon really is as a person and where she draws her own personal strength and sense of identity from. The “Coming Home” book will also be available in early 2024.
“Coming Home” is Cara Dillon’s first new material in six years and the apprehension about how this change in format might be received by audiences was still showing a little this evening with, at times, almost disbelief that anyone would want to listen to her up until now private poetry and words. That apprehension was not needed, as the audience response to this tour and the new work with its mixture of personal recollections, spoken word, and songs has so far been nothing but positive.
Whatever Cara Dillon sings, whether that be traditional or contemporary, always has those unmistakable clear and at times almost ethereal vocals that make everything seem timeless, almost as if for a moment or two Cara is getting inspiration from somewhere just beyond what most of us experience.
Cara Dillon’s words are the same, a gift to notice the small details of everyday life that pass so many of us by unnoticed and the ability to let us, through her words, somehow see and connect with the people in those stories. Some people are, I think, here not only to tell stories but to act as a bridge to the stories and people of yesterday and in the retelling and the recalling of names make sure that people and events are never forgotten, and someone at sometime will also take Cara and her stories and continue the unbroken threads of this never-ending tapestry.
Family and faith are hugely important to Cara Dillon as are the many strong women that she remembers from her childhood and this is what “Coming Home” is really about, returning to those places and people that somehow give you that feeling of strength and security and how little, almost inconsequential, moments can somehow trigger these reconnections. In the songs on “Coming Home” - “Clear The Path”, “Coming Home”, “Carrageen Moss”, “Apron Strings”, “White Sheets, “The Well”, “Inishowen” and “Mysteries” (wrapped up in a little bit of Pachelbel's Canon), these stories and the people in them come alive with a seamless combination of Cara’s spoken words and vocals with original music and arrangements by Sam Lakeman (guitar and piano this evening too).
Not all memories are good ones though, and growing up in Northern Ireland during “The Troubles” has obviously left its mark upon Cara Dillon to this day.
Adding their own distinctive musical contributions to this new work are James Lindsay – bass, Toby Shaer - fiddle/whistles/guitar, and Liz Hanks – cello.
Hopefully this tour will help Cara Dillon take that next step and realise just how good her own words are and what a gift she has for spoken word performances alone and an ability to take us all into her world and the people that inhabit it whilst waiting for the next story to begin.
Review by Tom King © 2023
www.artsreviewsedinburgh.com
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