About Sam
Sam is the proud recipient of the 2011 Arts Foundation Award for folk music. This coveted development grant recognises the unique journey Sam’s music is taking. As one of the most gifted singers to recently re appraise folk music, Sam is fast becoming a pioneer in defining the sound and shape of contemporary folksong. His forthcoming debut album, ground of it’s Own, has been widely praised:
“Ground Of Its Own is wonderful. The singing is sublime and exquisite! It’s gentle and despairing, trance-like and tender. Strokes of genius there I think!” Shirley Collins
Sam’s Promotional Work
Sam is also an award-winning promoter through his 2010 BBC Folk club of the year ‘The Magpie’s Nest’. The club is in part responsible for the enormous resurgence within the live folk scene and wider music industry. Responsible for major shows across London, festival stages across the UK and on regularly on the BBC
Sam’s Academic Work
On an academic note Sam experienced a unique apprenticeship under the Legendary and late Scottish Traveller Stanley Robertson last of the great Ballad singers. Sam also leads ground break research into the music and stories of the Romany Gypsy and Irish Traveller communities.
Sam is a regular teacher for Newcastle University, Goldsmiths College, EFDSS and after both Cecil Sharp and Vaughan Williams failed, holds the accolade as the first folk singer to teach at the Royal College of Music
A more detailed account
Sam’s folk career began in 2006, when, dissatisfied with the lack of London folk clubs catering for a younger audience and a younger ear, he became the creative force behind The Magpie’s Nest folk night. The club welcomes ‘New Folk, Old Folk, No Folk’ from far afield each month. Hailed as “the torch bearing folk club for the new generation”, the Magpie’s Nest went on to win the BBC Folk Club of the Year award, 2010. It is through this new commitment to honouring and routing out the finest music that Sam commenced on a music making journey quite unlike any other performer. He researched and subsequently became apprenticed in a realm of traditional music almost unknown to the rest of the world.
2009 saw the passing of Stanley Robertson, Scotland’s legendary Traveller and ballad singer, with whom Sam was apprenticed with as the musical ‘next of kin’ to his vast repertoire of songs and ancient Traveller singing craft. Whilst learning with Stanley, Sam spent time recording and documenting the songs and culture of the English Romany Gypsies and Irish Travellers, gleaning and collating a vast and ancient collection of heritage music.
Read Stanley Robertson’s obituary
Sam and his songs have journeyed to many countries and venues, including a tour of New Zealand with Tim van Eyken, Concerts in Turkey, Sweden, Ireland, two tours of the USA and many across the UK. He has sung regularly in London’s National Gallery, at the National Theatre, The Queen Elizabeth Hall and in 2008 at The Victoria and Albert Museum, the ICA and the Roundhouse. In December 2009 he featured on the BBC4 Christmas Special at The Royal Albert Hall, dueting with Jon Boden and singing alongside Rufus and Martha Wainwright, Brian Eno, Boy George and The McGarrigle Sisters; a night made even more memorable as it was to become Kate McGarrigle’s last ever concert.
Praise for ‘Ground of it’s Own’
‘Ground of Its Own’ is wonderful. The singing is sublime and exquisite! It’s gentle and despairing, trance-like and tender. Strokes of genius there I think!
Shirley Collins
“The rising star of traditional English folksong”
The Daily Telegraph
“One of the most promising folk singers to emerge from the London scene this decade”
The Independent
“I think what put shivers down my back when I heard Sam sing was his attention to the detail of decoration and the style of all those old singers. It was like hearing the past and the future of traditional song all rolled into one voice”
Ali Burns
“If you ever need a quote…”
Jon Boden – Bellowhead
