Sam Lee
"British folk's most adventurous artist" - MOJO
"A dazzling fusion of nature and song...Lee's rich baritone voice carries the imprint of folk past...it's a daring piece of chamber folk..."…
“British folk’s most adventurous artist” – MOJO
“A dazzling fusion of nature and song…Lee’s rich baritone voice carries the imprint of folk past…it’s a daring piece of chamber folk…” – The Observer
“Absolutely exquisite” – Clash
Mercury Prize nominated folk singer, conservationist, song collector, award winning promoter, broadcaster and activist.
Sam Lee plays a unique role in the British music scene. He’s an acclaimed, award- winning inventive singer, a folksong collector, conservationist and founder/director of The Nest Collective who’ve helped shake up the music scene and injected life back into the folk trad and world acoustic scenes. His 1st release, ‘Ground Of Its Own’ in 2012, was short-listed for the Mercury Music Prize. Sam’s 2015 album ‘The Fade In Time’ broke further ground with ‘Lovely Molly’ winning a BBC Radio 2 Folk Award for Best Traditional Track. He also won Artist of the Year at the 2016 Songlines Magazine Awards. Sam wrote and performed the lead song for Guy Ritchie’s Hollywood film ‘King Arthur: Legend of the Sword’. March 2024 sees the release of Sam Lee’s fourth studio album, the follow up to 2020’s ‘Old Wow’, an album variously described as ‘A dazzling fusion of nature and song’ (The Observer) and a ‘sublime album that demands to be heard in the 21st century’ (The Daily Telegraph) amidst a host of critical acclaim. The new album, ‘Songdreaming’ represents the latest stage in the development of Sam Lee’s music, from its roots in traditional folk song to a new way of imagining and performing these old songs, making them relevant for a modern audience.
‘Songdreaming’ sees Sam continue his work with producer Bernard Butler and long term collaborator, arranger and composer James Kay in creating an album rich in musicality and invention, building on the backbone of double bass, percussion and violin with a world of instrumentation including the Arabic Qanoon and Swedish Nyckelharpa. In doing so, Sam delivers an album that ranges from more immediately identifiable acoustic songs to drone soundscapes to the electric guitar and gospel choir propelled lead single, ‘Meeting Is A Pleasant Place’ which features the recording debut of Trans Voices, a London based transgender choir.
With a lyrical focus on the perilous state of the natural world that has informed Sam’s work since his debut, ‘Songdreaming’ represents the most expansive and fully realised Sam Lee album to date, capable of switching from the beautiful balladry of ‘Sweet Girl McRee’ to the gospel tinges of ‘Leaves Of Life’ and the whiteout noise close of album opener ‘Bushes and Briars’. It is a full expression of Sam Lee as an artist and of his relationship to his muse, the natural world. As he notes:
“I wanted to sing a vision of what a conversation between us and the land could be, to restore and inspire a practice of songful immersion in nature that brings with it healing, something we need now more than ever.”
Sam is a committed environmental campaigner whose work includes the annual sell- out ‘Singing With Nightingales’ helping to highlight the threat to these and other endangered species. In 2019, Sam was musical director for the RSPB campaign ‘Let Nature Sing’, which resulted in 3 minutes of bird song entering the Top 20 UK music charts. Sam is a founding member of Music Declares Emergency and is closely involved with Extinction Rebellion. He released his debut book ‘The Nightingale: Notes on a Songbird’ out now on Century/Penguin Random House in 2021.