Photo: Monika S. Jakubowska
Wishbones is Alive with her characteristic wit, savvy and sensitivity. Album of the year.
The Arts Desk ★★★★★
An incandescent presence with superior lyrics.
The Guardian ★★★★
Beat poet adventurer who strays beyond the realm of singer songwriter.
MOJO ★★★★
Yearningly pretty and bittersweet.
The Independent ★★★★★
Like Dylan on amphetamines.
The Financial Times ★★★★
It’ll be mere moments after hearing Sarah Gillespie’s vocals on this, the title track from her new album, that you’ll understand why she attracts Tom Waits comparisons.
Americana UK
Her witty, free-flowing originals on Wishbones have a beat poet's eye for observation.
Jazzwise ★★★★
Superior lyrics & compositional acumen flourish in the hands of a truly powerful band.
R&R Magazine ★★★★★
Her songs are rich, wry poetic artefacts.
Mail on Sunday ★★★★
Streetwise and romantic, tender and tough.
The Daily Telegraph ★★★★
Gillespie proved why she has a dizzying reputation as a songwriter and performer. Bigger stages beckon.
Record Collector Magazine
A unique way with words.. plus terrific guitar playing... not just great songs but totally original music. Brilliant, the bees knees.
Robert Wyatt
Anglo-American singer-songwriter Sarah Gillespie is renowned for mixing elements of folk, jazz, and Americana with her signature poetic lyricism.
Over the past 15 years, Gillespie has released five critically acclaimed albums to widespread praise from the UK press and beyond. She's toured extensively across the UK, Europe, and the US, performing at leading venues and festivals including Blue Note (Milan), Ronnie Scott’s (London), CBGB’s (NYC), the Singer Songwriter Festival (Lahr, Germany), and sold-out shows at the Southbank Centre’s Purcell Room.
A compelling live performer and articulate commentator, Gillespie has appeared on BBC Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour (twice), Loose Ends, and Start the Week, where she was invited to speak about the intersection of politics and the arts. (She holds an MA in Philosophy and Politics.) Her work has received airplay on BBC Radio 3, BBC Radio 2, and public radio stations across the United States. Her band features top-tier jazz musicians: Chris Montague (guitar), Tom Cawley (piano), James Maddren (drums), and Conor Chaplin (bass).
In 2020, during the global lockdown, Gillespie founded the Create Now Academy, delivering transformative songwriting and creativity programmes, workshops, and retreats to women around the world.
In addition to her work as a performer and mentor, Gillespie is a producer. Through her label Pastiche Records, she and her team have produced and released several acclaimed albums and EPs internationally. She is also the co-founder of She Writes Songs, a non-profit organisation championing female songwriters.
THE SHIELING
Following a run of intimate duo performances in California + New Mexico, Sarah Gillespie and Chris Montague retreated to a cottage on the shores of Loch Fyne, Scotland, to record their forthcoming duo album, the Shieling. The cottage, belonging to Chris’s parents, takes its name from the Scottish rural tradition of simple shelters used during seasonal grazing in the hills where families would gather, tell stories and make music.
The Shieling draws on Gillespie’s distinctive poetic sensibility and Montague’s maverick musical imagination, his guitars, mandolin, pedal steel and banjo taking the songs into unexpected territory. Rooted in folk, Americana and vivid beat inspired poetry, the first single 18th Holy Curse is released in November 2026 and the album in February 2027 on Pastiche Records.
Discography
The Shieling (2027), Half Cut (2024), Susannah Threw A Helicopter (2021), Wishbones (2018), Roundhouse Bounty (2016), Glory Days (2013), The War on Trevor (2012), In The Current Climate (2011), Stalking Juliet (2009)
Sarah Gillespie gratefully acknowledges support from Arts Council England, PRS Foundation, and Yamaha Guitars.
Live
‘Half Cut’ by Sarah Gillespie + Chris Montague Recorded Live at Eastcote Studio 2 - © 2026 Pastiche Records.
‘Half Cut’ from Sarah Gillespie’s album ‘Half Cut’ © 2024 Pastiche Records.
‘Molly of the Salt Sea’ from Sarah Gillespie’s album ‘Half Cut’ © 2024 Pastiche Records
‘Glory Days’ from Sarah Gillespie’s album ‘Glory Days’ © 2013 Pastiche Records
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