Seth Lakeman – in concert at Summer Sundae, Leicester – 2006 – BBC 6 Music.
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Seth Lakeman in concert tonight, recorded by The BBC during the Summer Sundae Festival at Leicester in 2006. I was thinking about this concert and looking at the date (2006) and it all started coming back; 2006 was around the time Mumford and Sons were getting started and MySpace was inundated with this new hybrid of Folk Music that was coming, almost exclusively out of the UK.
In 2002 Lakeman released his first solo album, The Punch Bowl, produced by elder brother Sean Lakeman which received wide critical acclaim including a review in fRoots magazine which said: “The songs don’t just glide smoothly by…..they get their claws into you”.
Kitty Jay, Lakeman’s second solo album was released in 2004. This was also produced by brother Sean Lakeman in his kitchen. The title track of the album tells the story of Jay’s Grave, a well known location on Dartmoor. The album was recorded for a cost of less than £300.[5] Kitty Jay reached silver status in the UK . That same year he collaborated with Devon singer-songwriter Steve Knightley and young local singer Jenna Witts on the album Western Approaches.
A UK tour in Autumn 2005 followed his Mercury Music Prize nomination, after which Lakeman and his band (regularly brother Sean Lakeman (guitar), Ben Nichols (bass), Andy Tween (drums), toured extensively with folk-rock band The Levellers, who took to closing their set with a “fiddle off” between Lakeman and Levellers’ fiddler Jonathan Sevink. Other support tours with Billy Bragg and Jools Holland brought Lakeman’s music to a wider audience.
In March 2006 Lakeman began a UK tour in order to promote his new album Freedom Fields which was released on iScream. Produced again by Sean Lakeman He signed to a new major record label, Relentless Records, promptly releasing a new single “Lady of the Sea” in early August 2006. This record went gold making it one of the biggest selling traditionally based folk records ever in the UK.
This performance at the Summer Sundae festival in 2006 coincides with promoting the release of that album. In the event you missed it the first time around, sit back and have a listen – a truly unique and richly textured voice; one that is welcome to the ears.
Enjoy.
