Derry-born, Somerset-based folk/trad songstress Cara Dillon is used to unlikely collaborations and unusual tie-ins. She was once signed to Geoff Travis’ Rough Trade – a label not noted for its acoustic, traditional or folk output. She has performed with Peter Gabriel, appeared on Mike Oldfield’s Tubular Bells III and supplied the theme song to a Disney movie, Tinker Bell And The Great Fairy Rescue. But the story of how a member of one of the biggest-selling bands in music history ended up on her latest album, A Thousand Hearts, is one that even she finds hard to believe.

“About two years ago we were back in my hometown of Dungiven having a wee break, staying with my mam with the kids,” she recalls. “I was flying out the next morning and was in my pyjamas, ready to go to bed when I got this phone call from a man in the town. He said, ‘Cara, Timothy is here with me and he’d love to meet up with you.’ I was going, ‘Timothy who?’”
The “Timothy” in question turned out to be one Timothy B. Schmit of the legendary Californian supergroup, The Eagles, who happened to be holidaying in the locality.
“His wife’s family is from around the area and he was visiting at the time,” Dillon relates. “He said he was a fan of mine, found out I was in town and wanted to meet up. So Sam [Lakeman, her husband] and I went around to the local pub and had a few drinks with him.”
Schmit told Dillon that he always played her Hill Of Thieves album in his car – citing it as one of his favourites.
“It was a huge compliment,” she beams. “I couldn’t believe it. He is the most modest, humble chap you’d ever meet. But then he said if I ever want him to do some vocals to just ask and he’ll do it. About a year later we wanted to put lots of vocals on the song ‘Bright Morning Star’ for the new album and we wanted a really distinctive male vocalist to make it stand out. So we asked him to do it and he obliged. His voice is really high and sweet in the mix and it’s perfect for the song.”
Such are the chance meetings and encounters that have made the last 20 years a musical and real-life adventure for Dillon. She met her future husband and musical collaborator Sam Lakemen when she replaced Kate Rusby in folk supergroup Equation at just 19. Following several label changes over the years they've now created a veritable cottage industry from the Somerset base. Her fifth album, recorded in their home studio and released on their own Charcoal Records, finds her going back to her roots, as she explains: “Since doing the last album I found myself being more and more inspired by the things I heard when I was growing up like The Bothy Band and Planxty – just a group of musicians playing in a room. So that was our starting point and we loved the way it all worked out. It was done that way."
The songs on A Thousand Hearts include standards like ‘As I Roved Out’ and ‘Táimse im’ Chodladh’ as well as a cover of Shawn Colvin’s’ ‘Shotgun Down The Avalanche’.
“I’m a huge fan of Shawn Colvin and I’ve always wanted to do ‘Avalanche’. I’ve done it live a few times and people have asked where could they buy it, so we decided to record it. I was quite scared to do ‘As I Roved Out'. But we’ve done ‘Black Is The Colour’ and ‘The Parting Glass’ before so I thought, ‘why not?’ That’s the main one, it’s the hit (laughs). The other songs just all came so easy – ‘A Jacket So Blue’ is a rare one for me in that it’s about a woman trying to lead a man astray.
“We’re really confident and happy about the way we’ve got it all going on at the moment,” she concludes. “The more relaxed the musicians, the more relaxed the sessions. There was none of this red light pressure. I’d cook dinner and we’d have a few glasses of wine and if anyone felt like playing, we’d do some recording. If not, we’d just do it the next day.”

A Thousand Hearts is out now