HAVING just returned from a coast-to-coast tour of America in which she played 37 shows in just seven weeks, you could forgive Sarah McQuaid for taking it easy.

But the award-winning singer-songwriter is now in the middle of a UK tour which brings her to Barnoldswick on Monday.

“That American tour was intense,” said Sarah, “so as busy as the UK tour may look it’s certainly less hectic than the US one. Having said that, the Barlick concert will be show number eight of eight gigs on the trot.”

Sarah is on the road having released her fifth solo album, If We Dig Any Deeper It Could Get Dangerous, which with its blend of folk and Americana showcases both her musical ability - she plays piano and guitar - and her rich voice.

It has impressed specialist music critics on both sides of the Atlantic earning several album of the year plaudits and, yet the more mainstream outlets have largely ignored it.

“The reaction to the new album from people who have reacted has been tremendous,” she said. “But I felt like it was little bit ignored by the mainstream press and radio in this country.

“It can be a bit dispiriting when you get covered by major magazines in other countries and yet in the country where I live I can’t really get a look in. But I guess that’s always been the way.”

Sarah puts that down partly to the fact that she’s not on a major label, preferring instead to release her own albums.

“I like being independent and having total creative control over things,” she said. “I did have a brief flirtation with a record label well over 10 years ago and I’m glad I didn’t go with it as they wanted to put me into development. I’ve known other artists where that has happened and that can be a horrible hell you can pay a lot of money to get out of just to release some music.”

If We Dig Any Deeper... was produced by Michael Chapman, one of the leading figures of the British folk scene for the past 50 years.

“It was such an honour to be able to work with Michael,” said Sarah. “We have been friends for years and one day I was staying with him at his home in Cumbria and he asked if I was thinking of recording a new album any time soon.

“When I said I was he asked it he could produce it. I was just bowled over.

“It was amazing to work with him and he plays some fantastic stuff on the album too.”

Sarah has worked in a different way writing songs for both her most recent release and its predecessor Walking Into White.

“Because I’d been touring so much I would jot down ideas for songs but not get round to finish them,” she said.

“With Walking Into White I’d booked the studio time and then had to complete the songs all in one go and it worked really well.

“I sat down with all these disparate ideas and found that I wound up with an album that hung together as a whole and because I was writing them all at once.

“So with the last album I had to force myself not to complete any of the songs in advance.”

Sarah says that the new album has a number of different themes.

“One of the main ones, and I almost hesitate to say it because it sounds so grim, is death.

“That all sounds very negative but I don’t think of it as a negative album. It’s a very positive album. I am talking about serious themes but there are some upbeat songs too.”

Clearly fans are impressed by the songs.

“I had a woman come up to me at a gig recently and she said ‘I want to thank you especially as a female artist there wasn’t a single song about ‘Oh I love him so much but he doesn’t love me’ or ‘I hate him because he doesn’t love me any more’. Your songs are about life and real issues which is so nice’,” said Sarah.

Meeting fans at shows is, Sarah admits, one of the things she enjoys most about touring.

“I love getting to meet new people every night,” she said. “It’s kind of nice that I’m touring at the level where I man my own merch stand so I’m there chatting to people at the interval. That’s lovely, you get that immediate feedback.

“At a gig a couple of nights ago a guy came up and bought all six of my albums plus an extra copy of the new album for a friend. When that happens that just lights you up.

“When you have fans like that it makes you feel like you are doing right.”

Anyone going along to one of Sarah’s gigs might expect a full band show given the array of instruments on stage and for Barlick she’s got a new addition to her musical repertoire.

“I’ve now got a drum of my own,” she laughed. “It’s a vintage Seventies’ tom which I bought on eBay for £55. Roger the wonderful drummer who played on the new album and gave me my one and only drum lesson said he’d really like to get me on a kit. Now that would be really fun.”

Sarah McQuaid, Barnoldswick Music and Arts Centre, Monday, November 19. Details from www.barnoldswickmusicandartscentre.com or 01282 813374