Lisa will be performing alongside Irish Folk luminaries Mary MacPartlan, Rionach Connolly and fiddle player/multi-instrumentalist Gerry Diver on March 16 at King’s Place for an extraordinary play-with-music retelling of the story of Irish street singing legend Margaret Barry in She Moved Through the Fair by Colin Irwin.
Norma Waterson likened her to Bessie Smith, Billie Holiday and Edith Piaf; Bob Dylan said she was his favourite folk singer; and Van Morrison called her ‘a real soul singer’…Margaret Barry was extraordinary.
Born in Cork on January 1, 1917 she left home at 16 with nothing but a bicycle and a banjo tied to her back with string as she set off to busk her way through the harsh streets of Ireland. What happened next is part of folk music legend.
Colin Irwin, music reviewer for The Guardian, fRoots and more and author of biographies for Neil Young and Bob Dylan, has created a spellbinding show, acted by Gillian Horgan and Luke MacLeod, recounting her unique life which took her into the company of Elvis and Frank Sinatra, via a TV debut courtesy of David Attenborough and discovery by Alan Lomax, beginning with her busking across Ireland by bike aged 16.
Mixing music by some of the greats of Irish music – Mary McPartlan, John Carty and Seamie O’Dowd, with line ups sometimes including Cathy Jordan, Gerry Diver and Lisa Knapp, and narration by Colin himself, the show has already performed with great success at Celtic Connections, FolkEast, Whitby Folk Week and Sidmouth Folk Festival.
