An eventful summer – and now back on tour

It’s been an eventful summer. After a very hectic seven weeks of touring in Ireland and the UK, I arrived home to find June “busting out all over” in the form of weeds everywhere. I’d just about made a start on reclaiming the garden from the overgrowth by the time we had to make the long drive from Cornwall to Durham for my son Eli’s graduation — a trip that became considerably more adventurous that we’d have liked when our car’s clutch failed on the way there and we had to organise a last-minute rental. Fortunately we made it eventually, and here’s a photo of the young fella with his proud parents on the big day:

Now the holder of an Honours BA in Archaeology & Anthropology from Durham University, he’s taking driving lessons and applying for trainee archaeologist jobs, with his first interview tomorrow! Meanwhile our younger son Alexander is looking forward to his second year of Film Studies and Art History at the University of Essex. And the car has a new clutch, and I’m doing what I can in the garden although it’s still looking pretty overgrown. But here are a few photos I took recently of stunning snapdragons, an inquisitive robin, sweet peas in the evening sun, and a happy bee collecting nectar from our sage flowers:

On my Instagram page you’ll find lots more photos, not only of the garden but also of my efforts to clear out the derelict garage adjoining our house, which I’m hoping to renovate into a home studio where I can record future albums, make videos, write and rehearse new material, store equipment and merch, and do all my music-related admin work. Click here (or on the image below) to view a video collab with the lovely people at G7th The Capo Company, kindly filmed just a few days ago by my wonderful manager and sound engineer Martin Stansbury of Cacophony Cottage, in which I stroll around said garage while singing a few bars of the great Jerry Jeff Walker’s classic “Mr. Bojangles”. As you can see, there’s a lot of work to be done …. If you’d like to help make it happen, please consider contributing (either as a one-off donation or better yet as a monthly subscription) via my Ko-Fi page — and massive thanks to those of you who have already done/are already doing so.

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As many of you know, Martin suffered a terrible bereavement this summer, and I can't express how sad and sorry I am – both for Martin and for the loss of a kind, thoughtful, compassionate and loving individual who for the past ten years has been a constant not only in his life but in the lives of all his friends, myself included. We’re both still reeling from the shock, but Martin felt strongly that we should push on with our autumn tour plans: as Faye was always so tolerant and understanding of his long absences from home, he believes that the best way to honour her memory is to continue on with the work she made such an effort and sacrifice to support.

The tour starts this Friday and continues through the end of November, with a total of 20 shows in the UK and 35 in the USA. I’ll be including “Mr. Bojangles” in my setlist and will also be debuting two brand-new original songs that I hope will feature on my next album. These are tough times for getting audiences out to concerts, so please do tell your friends about any shows you think might interest them, and please do book in advance if you can. I’m very, very grateful for your support.

As always, you’ll find all the details on the Tour page of my website, and you can also follow me on Bandsintown to get notifications about shows near you.

Many thanks once again, and I hope to see you down the road.

All the best,

Sarah

In Memoriam: Faye Charlotte McFarlane (1971-2024)