Cara Dillon seems to have seduced the entire nation in just a couple of short, breathtaking,eventful years. Make that several nations, for among the rare ingredients of herirresistibly natural personality and mesmerising ability to relate a great story in song, is an all-embracing quality that defies borders, cultures and even languages.
After twiddling their thumbs tied to a record company intent on turning them into pop stars for longer than they care to remember, Cara and her partner Sam Lakeman finally baled out to do their own thing. That thing, a beautiful, melancholy self-titled album of folk songs ('Cara Dillon' / Rough Trade Records), had gnarled old critics singing their praises and the avalanche of gigs that followed had audiences filling venues the length and breadth of Europe.
This, we soon learned, was the Cara Dillon effect and it transformed Cara and Sam from also-rans into one of the most sought-after acts in the land. A clutch of awards tumbled into their laps - BBC Folk Awards' best new act and track of the year for Black Is The Colour, Hotpress 'Best Trad Album', No 9 in the HMV Choice magazine critics poll of 2001 - and triumphant appearances at WOMAD festivals around the world proved their magic was all-consuming.
"Oh it's been absolutely incredible," says Cara in that winning wide-eyed way of hers. "We put out the album and didn't expect anything really, but the way it sold took us totally by surprise. We did over 200 gigs last year and played WOMAD in Australia, New Zealand and Singapore - I still haven't taken it all in."
Recorded at Cara and Sam's home in Somerset, their second album - 'Sweet Liberty' - is as intimate and beguiling as the first, enhanced by some significant additions. Produced by Sam, it takes its title from ' The Emigrant's Farewell ', the keynote final track that captures the essence of Cara's emotional interpretation of traditional songs. Yet there are five original Dillon-Lakeman songs here too, as well as Cara's already famous version of Tommy Sands' heartbreaking narrative about The Troubles in Northern Ireland,There Were Roses ( nominated for best song 2003 BBC Folk Awards ) She originally sang it at the behest of Billy Connolly on his TV show and the public reaction was instantaneous and overwhelming. "People may have been surprised because I've never done anything political before, but I feel so strongly about peace and agree with the essence of that song so much I felt confident about commiting to it".
Sam's production has evolved masterfully in step with Cara's added vocal maturity. There is a new depth to the arrangements and songwriting. Yet, despite the added confidence flowing throughout, 'Sweet Liberty' takes Cara closer than ever back to her roots with the inclusion of the songs ‘The Gem Of The Roe’ and ‘The Winding River Roe’, deeply entrenched in her childhood in the town of Dungiven, Co.Derry. Every child there grows up with the legend of Finvola, princess of the O'Cahan clan; and knows The Gem Of The Roe, the song that tells her story.
She lives in England now, but remains close to Dungiven and the grounded upbringing it gave her. She has vivid memories of her mother taking her and her sister to fleadhs around Ireland and listening transfixed to the dramatic ballads sung by old men in the back room of pubs. Her sister Mary, herself a superb singer who guests on Sweet Liberty, found a "treasure chest" of old tape recordings she had made of some of these old guys in pubs, passed them on to Cara, and she's recorded a couple of them on the album. They are dear to her heart for dark pub rooms at fleadhs were essentially Cara's training ground. She remembers listening to great traditional singers like Paddy Tunney and Rosin White, both regular visitors to Dungiven, and in no time had a repertoire of her own to sing at the fleadhs. At 14 she won the All Ireland Traditional Singing trophy and a year later she was in her first band, Oige. They were pretty successful too, but Cara was all set for university when she got a call out of the blue in 1995 inviting her to come to England to replace Kate Rusby in the band Equation.
It was the offer she couldn't refuse. Equation, ( signed to Warners), seemed to be heading for the top, but the album they recorded 'Return To Me' didn't get a release. However, Cara had found her soulmate Sam Lakeman in the band and the pair decided to try their luck as a duo. There followed a long frustrating period as they experimented with writing and recording songs with a succession of top producers and songwriters. However, none of the projects and collaborations seemed to fulfill the inner visions that Cara and Sam had developed, so they decided to abandon ship and do their own thing.
There have been other adventures down the line. A voice like that will always be in big demand. Cara sang 'Man In The Rain' on Mike Oldfield's Tubular Bells 3, appeared live and on record with Ghostland and on the famous Woman's Heart tour with Dolores Keane, Mary Black, Eleanor McEvoy and Maura O'Connell. And now she has her own band to tour with. "I am very lucky. I am able to play the type of music I love with great musicians and we're having a lot of fun - you can't ask much more than that."
