Sam Carter is a British guitarist, singer and songwriter, originally from the English Midlands but more recently based in
Sheffield
Sheffield is a city in South Yorkshire, England, situated south of Leeds and east of Manchester. The city is the administrative centre of the City of Sheffield. It is historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire and some of its so ...
.
He has released four albums of mainly original material which fall loosely into the folk/roots category. Carter is the winner of the "Horizon" award for best newcomer at the
BBC Radio 2
BBC Radio 2 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. It is the List of most-listened-to radio programs, most popular station in the United Kingdom with over 14 million weekly listeners. Since launching in 1967, the sta ...
Folk Awards in 2010. Highly regarded as an instrumentalist, contemporary
Jon Boden of
Bellowhead
Bellowhead is an English contemporary folk band, active from 2004 to 2016, reforming in 2020. The eleven-piece act played traditional dance tunes, folk songs and shanties, with arrangements drawing inspiration from a wide range of musical sty ...
described him as 'the finest English-style finger-picking guitarist of his generation, and former
BBC Radio 2
BBC Radio 2 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. It is the List of most-listened-to radio programs, most popular station in the United Kingdom with over 14 million weekly listeners. Since launching in 1967, the sta ...
folk show presenter
Mike Harding
Mike Harding (born 23 October 1944) is an English singer, songwriter, comedian, writer, broadcaster and musician.
Early life and education
Harding's father, Louis Arthur "Curly" Harding, a navigator in the RAF, was killed in the Second Worl ...
wrote that Carter was "one of the most gifted acoustic guitarists of his generation.". As a songwriter, Carter marries a traditionally English narrative style with elements of American
gospel
Gospel originally meant the Christianity, Christian message ("the gospel"), but in the second century Anno domino, AD the term (, from which the English word originated as a calque) came to be used also for the books in which the message w ...
,
shapenote,
R&B and
folk-rock has been described as an "impressively original" performer. Some commentators consider that Carter's guitar and vocal style is similar to that of noted British iconoclasts
John Martyn and
Roy Harper, whilst his lyrical perspective has further invited comparison with the work of
Richard Thompson.
Solo career
After moving to London from his native
Rutland
Rutland is a ceremonial county in the East Midlands of England. It borders Leicestershire to the north and west, Lincolnshire to the north-east, and Northamptonshire to the south-west. Oakham is the largest town and county town.
Rutland has a ...
, Carter came to the attention of British Indian musician
Nitin Sawhney
Nitin Sawhney (; born 1964) is a British musician, producer and composer. A recipient of the Ivor Novello Lifetime Achievement award in 2017, among multiple international awards throughout his career. Sawhney's work combines Asian and other ...
and singer/songwriter
Martin Simpson, from whom he reportedly received some guitar tuition. As a result of this, he was installed as one of sixteen "Emerging Artists in Residence" at London's Southbank Centre in the autumn of 2008. This in turn led to an invitation from fellow Artists in Residence
Bellowhead
Bellowhead is an English contemporary folk band, active from 2004 to 2016, reforming in 2020. The eleven-piece act played traditional dance tunes, folk songs and shanties, with arrangements drawing inspiration from a wide range of musical sty ...
to tour the UK with them in the Spring of 2009, and to further collaborate with members of the group, both live and on record, particularly fiddle player Sam Sweeney. Carter released his debut album ''Keepsakes'' in August 2009 to generally positive reviews. Following his success at the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards in February 2010, he was invited to participate in the British Council's 'Shifting Sands' project, an ongoing creative project featuring musicians from the UK and the
Arabian
The Arabian Peninsula (, , or , , ) or Arabia, is a peninsula in West Asia, situated north-east of Africa on the Arabian plate. At , comparable in size to India, the Arabian Peninsula is the largest peninsula in the world.
Geographically, the ...
Peninsula, and made a showcase appearance at the 2010
Cambridge Folk Festival.
Carter released a second album, ''The No Testament'', in August 2012, performed on ''
Later... with Jools Holland'' and appeared in two
BBC Four
BBC Four is a British free-to-air Public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom, public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It was launched on 2 March 2002 documentaries, one about the legendary folk singer
Nic Jones
Nic Jones (born Nicolas Paul Jones; 9 January 1947) is an English singer, songwriter and musician. Regarded as a prominent figure of the British folk revival, he has recorded five solo albums and collaborated with various musicians.
Biography ...
, broadcast on 29 and 30 September 2013, and the other a recording of a tribute concert to the late singer/songwriter
Sandy Denny
Alexandra Elene MacLean Denny (6 January 1947 – 21 April 1978) was an English singer-songwriter who was lead singer of the British folk rock band Fairport Convention. She has been described as " guably the pre-eminent British folk-rock sin ...
, broadcast in November 2012. After the release of his first album Carter became interested in American gospel and
spiritual music, and the
shapenote hymn-singing tradition of southern American vocal harmony music in particular, which influences were reflected in some of the songs on ''The No Testament''. He appeared at the annual
Shrewsbury Folk Festival in 2010 and 2013. For festival appearances during the summer of 2013, and subsequent live dates in the autumn of the same year, Carter formed a Trio with Matt Ridley (double bass) and Karl Penney (drums). Additionally, he played a handful of dates with Canadian folk singer
Catherine MacLellan, with whom he had collaborated in 2012 on a transatlantic exchange visit organised and sponsored by the
English Folk Dance & Song Society. His collaboration with Zimbabwean singer Lucky Moyo resulted in an appearance on the ''
Andrew Marr Show'' on the
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...
as part of 'Celebrating Sanctuary London 2013.'
In early 2014 the British Council invited Carter to perform in Pakistan as part of their 'Folk Nations' project. Carter performed twice in
Karachi
Karachi is the capital city of the Administrative units of Pakistan, province of Sindh, Pakistan. It is the List of cities in Pakistan by population, largest city in Pakistan and 12th List of largest cities, largest in the world, with a popul ...
with acclaimed sitar player Sajid Hussain and tabla player Haroon Samuel, and conducted a songwriting workshop at the
National Academy of Performing Arts. In March 2014 Carter returned to the UK to tour with his trio line-up, a number of the concerts also featuring Sam Sweeney, and toured solo in Canada in July, including a performance at
Calgary Folk Festival. In late 2015 Carter collaborated with folk contemporaries
Nancy Kerr, Maz O'Connor and
Martyn Joseph fo
Sweet Liberties an EFDSS and Folk By The Oak joint-funded songwriting project which toured major UK venues in Autumn 2015. The project spawned an album of the same name and featured on BBC Radio 3's World On 3 in late 2016. Carter released his third album ''How The City Sings'' in April 2016. A concept album influenced by his time spent living in London, the album was co-produced b
Dominic Monksand jazz pianist
Neil Cowley. After touring the album Carter relocated from London to Sheffield in September 2016.
In late 2019, Sam joined the ensemble for the touring folk theatre show ‘Rising Up: Peterloo 2019’, arranging and performing songs written by the Young’uns’
Sean Cooney alongside
Lucy Farrell of the Furrow Collective and Jim Molyneux.
In May 2020 Carter released his fourth studio album ''Home Waters'', the 17-date album launch spring tour cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
False Lights
Towards the end of 2014 Carter partnered with fellow roots musician
Jim Moray
Jim Moray (born ''Douglas Oates''; 20 August 1981) is an English folk music, English folk singer, multi-instrumentalist and record producer.
Recording artist
While studying classical composition at the Birmingham Conservatoire, Moray release ...
in a "folk rock" venture named False Lights. The band appeared live in session on the BBC Radio 2's ''Folk Show with Mark Radcliffe'' in December 2014 and announced a short tour in early 2015 in support of the release of their debut album ''Salvor,'' which received a nomination for Best Album at the 2016 BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards. The band played a set as the backing band for
Richard Thompson at Shrewsbury Folk Festival in August 2015. False Lights released follow-up album ''Harmonograph'' in February 2018, again appearing live in session on BBC Radio 2's ''Folk Show with Mark Radcliffe'' to promote the release.
Discography
Solo
*''Here in the Ground'' EP (Captain Records, 28 April 2008)
*''Keepsakes'' (Captain Records, 10 August 2009)
*''The No Testament'' (Captain Records, 20 August 2012)
*''Live At The Union Chapel'' EP (Privately released, 10 December 2012 – previously available only from the artist at gigs)
*''How the City Sings'' (Captain Records, 8 April 2016)
*''Home Waters'' (Captain Records, 1 May 2020)
*''Home Waters Live'' (Captain Records, 24 September 2021)
*''Silver Horizon'' (Captain Records, 16 August 2024)
False Lights
* ''Salvor'' (Wreckord Label, 2 February 2015)
* ''Harmonograph'' (Wreckord Label, 2 February 2018)
Sweet Liberties
* ''Sweet Liberties'' (Quercus Records, 7 October 2016)
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Carter, Sam
Year of birth missing (living people)
Living people
English folk guitarists
English folk singers
English male songwriters
People from Rutland
People educated at Catmose College