sam sweeney

Taken from his forthcoming new album ‘Unearth Repeat’, Sam Sweeney has shared his first album single ‘The Old Wagon Way’, also our Tune of the Day.

After embarking on a solo career, releasing his debut solo album The Unfinished Violin on Island Records and touring it to sell-out crowds in 2019, Sam Sweeney is releasing his highly anticipated second solo album, Unearth Repeat, on Hudson Records in March 2020.

With their superb fourth album Diversions now out, busy super-folk trio Leveret spoke to us about spontaneity in the band, shifting roles and playing with better musicians.

Diversions is the clearest statement of Leveret’s ability yet, an album packed with beautiful, gentle, energetic and fluid works, and it fully establishes this band as one of the very finest in English instrumental music.

Part Four of our Best Folk Albums of 2018 includes Sam Sweeney, Siobhan Miller, Hannah Rarity, Iona Fyfe, Phillip Henry, Trembling Bells, Jackie Oates, Eddi Reader and more.

The quality of the musicianship and the sensitive and sympathetic reading of the songs on The Unfinished Violin means that it should rightfully be considered one of the best folk albums of 2018. It’s context and story also suggests it has a good chance of being considered one of the most important too.

Consisting of Andy Cutting, Sam Sweeney and Rob Harbron, Leveret are a unique collaboration that has come to represent the very finest of English folk music. Their top-class musicianship and intuitive interplay have made them one of the most captivating trios on the scene.

Sam Sweeney has signed with Island Records to release his first solo album, The Unfinished Violin, an expansion and development of his acclaimed live show, Sam Sweeney’s Fiddle: Made In The Great War, which toured to great acclaim from 2014 to last year.

Since their formation, Leveret have been one of the most enviably talented groups of folk musicians on the circuit, but with the sheer creativity shown on Inventions they have moved up another gear.

For those that missed Sam Sweeney’s Fiddle: Made in the Great War in 2014, Sam has announced a final series of dates in June 2017. It’s a fascinating and entertaining multi-media performance telling the incredible story of the fiddle which took nearly 100 years to complete.

Three of England’s finest folk musicians: Andy Cutting, Sam Sweeney and Rob Harbron are on the road again this month as Leveret for the launch of their latest album ‘In the Round’. Watch them performing The Good Old Way from their latest album.

Fiddle player and BBC Radio 2 Folk Musician Of The Year Sam Sweeney has been named as the inaugural Artistic Director of the English Folk Dance and Song Society’s (EFDSS) new National Youth Folk Ensemble.

We have a stunning song premiere today from Fay Hield with Green Gravel taken from her forthcoming album, Old Adam, and her new digital single released to coincide with three special live shows this month!

There has never been a force of nature quite like the exhilarating juggernaut of bombastic, swaggering, buffed, multi-coloured big band folk that is Bellowhead and it is unlikely there ever will be again. Pandemonium presents highlights from Bellowhead’s incredible career.

There’s no doubt that Emily Portman has, with a little help from her friends, created and curated a dazzling display of writing and musicianship, but the real success of Coracle lies in the balancing of many seemingly disparate aspects to create an intensely luminous collection of songs whose articulate lyrics, virtuoso performances and intricate arrangements never overshadow the very real humanity which is at the heart of it all.

All good things must come to an end and so The Full English collective featuring some of the biggest stars on the English Folk music scene will head out on their final tour in May. But what a great job they’ve done of promoting the digital archive. Watch a new documentary about the project and a TEDx talk by Fay Hield: Why aren’t we all folk singers?

Six years ago Sam Sweeney bought a violin in Oxford. It’s 100 year history has led to a multi-media performance telling its incredible story to mark the anniversary of the start of World War I.

Since winning Best Newcomer at the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards in 2010, Sam Carter has been more in demand. Catch his trio on tour through March along with special guest Sam Sweeney of Bellowhead.