Cara Dillon Band

“There’s plenty of parking around the City Hall” the venue website states. This lead to a mad scramble along Sheffield’s crazy one way system, meaning that yours truly misses support act Hayley Hutchinson, and just about makes it in for the Cara Dillon Band. There are plenty of car parks, just holding around twenty cars each. Can I advise that if at all possible use public transport to get to Sheffield, or spend just short of an hour re-tracing your route between narrow blocked off roads and road works.

Cara Dillon has a voice that can lift you and make you cry at the same time. Softly spoken and never producing a wrong note, she is polite and friendly with the crowd. Many may know her recently from lending backing vocals to brother-in-law Seth Lakeman’s last offering ‘Freedom Fields’; I admit this is where I first heard her lovely Irish voice. But it turns out she has been very busy; winning the All Ireland Singing Trophy at the age of fourteen, performing for the Queen with the Ulster Orchestra and working with people ranging from Mike Oldfield to Judge Jules.



Tonight there is no Orchestra, as Dillon tells us before performing ‘Garden Valley’ “they could not all fly out here, though we did ask them”. Her husband Sam Lakeman is taking up electric piano and guitar duties, and the other guitar (“string duties”) are courtesy of John Smith. James O'Grady appears on a whole assortment of things (pipes, violin, whistle), and Dillon points out that he had a couple of young girl fans in Sheffield last time. Upon finding out that they are not around this time, Dillon jokes “That’s not a good sign!”

‘Craigie Hill’, the story of a couple that go to America to seek their fortune brings with it a hint from Dillon, as she nods to Lakeman that she wants to go on holiday there. For ‘There Are Roses’, a political tear jerker of a tale about friendship and the affects of the conflicts in Ireland, Dillon encourages the crowd to sing along with the verse, which they quietly oblige to. The sound of Dillon’s expressive voice alone with Lakeman’s complex piano compositions is, I swear, reducing big men in the crowd to tears.


The help from the extra singers doesn’t stop there, as we are also invited to sing ‘The Gem Of The Roe’, before a more lively song in the form of ‘P Stands For Paddy’. Then it’s back on the rollercoaster of emotions ride for ‘October Winds’, a delicate song written for Dillon’s late father. ‘Where Are You’ is not introduced but many know it and you can hear the faint sounds of a few joining in.

‘Lark In The Clean Air’ comes before her most famous song, an award-winning version of ‘Black is The Colour’ with it’s beautiful arrangements, and ‘Never In A Million Years’, a bittersweet tale of lost love.



After a minute it’s time for the encore, a burst of traditional Irish music with Dillon performing very well on the fiddle. “Here are a set of songs, I don’t know the names of them, but does it matter?” Not really, but I can not pass them onto you in that case.

I am not surprised Dillon is sort after as an artist to work with; there is not one bum note throughout the performance and you can feel the pain and the joy in the songs, such is her and the band members delivery. Highly recommended; just get there early to Sheffield for a parking space!

FUTURE GIGS