The stunning Live Theatre on Newcastle Quayside’s Broad Chare plays host to local folk/chamber artist Ruth Lyon on Friday 14th July for a special, intimate acoustic performance.
Lyon was raised in North Yorkshire before relocating to Newcastle to study fashion design at Northumbria University. She spent her formative years in the wild countryside of the North Yorkshire moors, instilling a sense of melancholia which would later inspire her musically. At primary school, she was drawn to the fiddle, and by the tender age of nine, she was writing songs for her friends.
Whilst studying at Northumbria, Lyon joined folk-rock outfit Holy Moly and the Crackers with whom she has toured the UK and Europe extensively. Over the years, Lyon has become a key member of the Newcastle music scene, including a role on the board of directors at Sage Gateshead. She is also an ambassador for ‘Attitude is Everything’: a charity that aims to improve accessibility for deaf and disabled people in live music (Lyon herself has been a wheelchair user since the age of 21).
Lyon began to develop her solo career in 2020 as an artist in residence at Sage. With the arrival of the lockdown, she was forced to shield herself. This led to Lyon building a new musical direction from her bedroom, with her music becoming more focused on piano and strings, forming a more melancholic sound.
Another key moment in Lyon’s career was when she made her debut at the South by Southwest Festival in Austin, Texas in 2022. She performed with fellow disabled artist Eliza Hull and was inspired to finish writing her EP ‘Direct Debit to Vogue’, an offbeat, sophisticated kind of chamber pop which she recorded with John Parish (Aldous Harding, This is the Kit, PJ Harvey). The key themes in Lyon’s songs are power in fragility and beauty in imperfection. They’re personal but not preachy, opening up self-acceptance in a society where superficial beauty is everything.
Lyon is a talented multi-instrumentalist, excelling on piano, clarinet and violin. She will be accompanied by Ceitdh Mac, a Wales-born Tynesider on cello and Tommy Evans on acoustic guitar.
This promises to be an evening of beautiful music and honest lyrics in the Theatre’s stunning main auditorium.
Tickets, priced at £12.00 in advance, are available at live.org.uk.
