Sam Lee

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. With his critically acclaimed new album, ‘Old Wow’, he takes the listener on a truly compelling and emotional journey that takes his work to yet another level.

His 1st release, ‘Ground Of Its Own’, in 2012, was shortlisted for a 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’.

‘Old Wow’ pushes Sam’s music into further remarkable territory with producer Bernard Butler’s (Suede, McAlmont & Butler) electric guitar playing and a rare and gorgeous contribution by Elizabeth Fraser (Cocteau Twins, Massive Attack). Her spine-tingling vocals were joined on the album by other stellar performers including Cosmo Sheldrake, spoken-word poet Dizraeli and The Gloaming’s Caoimhin O Raghallaigh.

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 has recently released his debut book ‘The Nightingale: Notes on a Songbird’, published by Century/Penguin Random House.

This performance forms part of Sam’s ‘Old Wow+‘ tour and for which he is releasing a special tour edition of the same title including the full original album together with six special bonus tracks.

Sam Lee plays a unique role in the British music scene. A highly inventive and original singer, folk song interpreter, a passionate conservationist, committed song collector and a successful creator of live events. With his latest album, Old Wow, he’s summonsed up a truly compelling and emotional album that takes his work to yet another level.

Lee’s debut folk album, Ground of its Own was shortlisted for the 2012 Mercury Music Award. His second album The Fade in Time won the Songlines Music Awards in the Europe category. In 2017, director Guy Ritchie chose him to write the lead song ‘The Devil and The Huntsman’ for his epic Hollywood fantasy King Arthur: Legend of the Sword.

Sam Lee’s newest album ‘Old Wow’ (2020), produced by Barnard Butler, introduces a dramatic change of musical direction where, for the first time, Sam includes the instrument most notably absent from his recording career, the guitar and electric guitar. With Old Wow he has re-worked traditional songs to create what he describes as “a timeless bridge, music that can be looking both backward and forwards, and a soulful accompaniment to an urgent need to fall back in love with nature if we are to know how to protect it”.

Sam Lee plays a unique role in the British music scene. A highly inventive and original singer, folk song interpreter, a passionate conservationist, committed song collector and a successful creator of live events. With his latest album, Old Wow, he’s summonsed up a truly compelling and emotional album that takes his work to yet another level.

Lee’s debut folk album, Ground of its Own was shortlisted for the 2012 Mercury Music Award. His second album The Fade in Time won the Songlines Music Awards in the Europe category. In 2017, director Guy Ritchie chose him to write the lead song ‘The Devil and The Huntsman’ for his epic Hollywood fantasy King Arthur: Legend of the Sword.

Sam Lee’s newest album ‘Old Wow’ (2020), produced by Barnard Butler, introduces a dramatic change of musical direction where, for the first time, Sam includes the instrument most notably absent from his recording career, the guitar and electric guitar. With Old Wow he has re-worked traditional songs to create what he describes as “a timeless bridge, music that can be looking both backward and forwards, and a soulful accompaniment to an urgent need to fall back in love with nature if we are to know how to protect it”.