Cara Dillon

Cara Dillon had quite a serious CV before embarking on her solo career; Born in '75 in Dunvigen County Derry she won the All Ireland Traditional Singing Trophy at just 14. At 15 she was singing in the band Oige, after that De Dannan and then onto Equation.

At this point she probably drew breath, and promptly fell for Sam Lakeman who was the one of the driving forces of Equation. A difficult period for Equation led to Sam and Cara departing to work as a duo.

It took time working with other producers to realise that they were probably better off doing it under their own steam. The first fruits of Cara's vocals, at one moment as fragile as glass and the next as strong as an ocean, allied with Sam's piano and production skills was the album 'Cara Dillon', a multi award winner. The songs were mostly trad arrangements, but what superb arrangements...

Cara was one of the acts instrumental in the crossover of trad folk to the mainstream, not least due to the fact that her voice is of a quality that makes you stop what you are doing and pay attention. She toured extensively before following up with another album in '03 'Sweet Liberty', recorde in Somerset where they now live. Again it was highly successful. Billy Connoly had asked Cara to record a track for his TV series about Britain, a track about the troubles in Northern Ireland. Unusually political for Cara, her performance underscored it's sad and poignant power.

Her third album After The Morning was released n March 2006, expectations were high for anything that Cara and Sam produce, It has exceeded expectations across the board. Encompassing the mainstream it still manages to pack in many traditional arrangements and a duet with