Live at Cooper Hall

The Derry singer is a reliably captivating live draw considering that voice, those songs, the subtle acoustic accompaniment of husband Sam Lakeman (here on a Steinway grand piano and guitar). In July last year, the two of them set up in Somerset’s Cooper Hall with Grammy award-winning recording engineer Dom Monks, and broadcast online an intimate, revealing and affecting performance to an empty hall before a virtual audience. Now 16 of those songs feature on this release.

Since she won the All-Ireland Singing Trophy aged only 14, Cara Dillon has been a major and distinctive voice in traditional Irish music, and the songs here are drawn from throughout her career. The set opens with ‘The Water is Wide’ and ‘As I Roved Out’, benefiting from Lakeman’s delicate acoustic guitar backing, before he turns to the Steinway for ‘False, False’, from the 2010 BBC Folk Award-winning album Hill of Thieves. ‘She’s Like the Swallow’ comes from her very first album, released on Rough Trade back in 2001 – as does ‘Black is the Colour’, which is given a stunning voice-piano account here. Another highlight, ‘Shores of Lough Bran’ is one of several poignant leave-taking songs. It’s a lockdown concert well worth revisiting.