Cara Dillon’s Brings Christmas Grace to Union Chapel
Written and Captured By | Morris Shamah
‘Tis the season, the season of annual Christmas concerts. Cara Dillon and her band performed their annual Christmas concert at Islington’s Union Chapel on Tuesday 18th December, filling the lovely church with a patient beauty.
Cara was joined on stage by her musical partner and husband Sam Lakeman, who’s guitar and keyboards acted as the musical base for the rest of the band to grow from. They were accompanied by a four piece band of fiddles, woodwinds, guitars, cello, and uilleann pipes, a kind of traditional Irish bagpipe played with a bellows. The Northern Irish folk singer herself had one or two excursions to the flute or fiddle, but mostly stuck to vocals across the two 40-minute sets and 20-minute encore.
See more photos of Cara Dillon HERE
The setlists were mostly Christmas themed, of course. Between the carols, traditional Irish blessings, and choice tracks from Cara’s 2016 Christmas record, Upon A Winter’s Night, Cara also performed two tracks from her upcoming LP, Coming Home – the title track, and Giving. These tracks – which are accurately self-described as “almost spoken word,” were preceded by deep personal stories, talking about homesickness, her parents, and generational emotional wealth. The stories and spoken word tracks offered an anchor for each set – perfectly placed mid-set, they gave the audience a chance to connect and reflect amid the familiar festive tunes. It was a gorgeous, masterful move by Cara – the Christmas songs almost acting as a trojan horse for the intimacy she brought with her storytelling.
Cara’s stage persona is similarly sneaky – she is soft spoken and warm, inviting you to join her in her moments of musicality. Cara’s vocals are smooth but earthy, and fill your ears with a cooling peacefulness, like the mist during a cold winter sunrise. Union Chapel is much the same way – physically drafty and cold to the touch, but inviting and cozy. Cara performing Christmas songs in Union Chapel is truly a perfect combination.
Prior to “Coming Home”, early in the second set, Cara performed a hauntingly beautiful cover of Joni Mitchell’s classic “River” from her 1971 album Blue. As much a Christmas song as Die Hard is a Christmas Movie, “River” is about a devastating breakup, but this version gave it a sense of peaceful resolution, still bittersweet but no longer hurtful. The concert as a whole was similarly transformative – Christmas songs became vessels of peace and reflection, and for just a few hours, the bustling of London at Christmastime became a distant memory.
Photos By | Morris Shamah