Sam Sweeney - Escape That (2022) Hi Res

Renowned fiddle player and tireless musical adventurer Sam Sweeney returns with the passionate, raw and expressive new album 'Escape That'. The record ties together the threads and footpaths of all of Sam's musical loves; an honest and fearless expression of himself, combining pop hooks and aesthetics with his pioneering work in the world of traditional dance tunes. 'Escape That' simultaneously presses the reset button on what a folk record should sound like while marking a major stride forward for Sam into the world of composition. Written without ever touching the violin, Sam retreated to his attic during the lockdowns of 2020-21 and created over twenty pieces of music.

Composed almost entirely on synths and guitars, with snapshots of loved ones and memories as inspiration in a time of isolation, he devised a way of writing where he'd lay down a chord sequence and then record an improvisation over the top. On listening back, anything that could be considered a hook would be kept, everything else was deleted and tracks developed by linking the hooks together to create dance tunes. Sam then translated the melodies back to the fiddle, an instrument of which he is considered a modern master. Nominated four times, and winner in 2015, of Musician Of The Year at the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards, Sam has been at the forefront of the revival in English music for the last fifteen years.

He is a veteran of the mighty Bellowhead, former and inaugural Artistic Director of the National Youth Folk Ensemble, a founder member of ground-breaking trio Leveret as well as a passionate and experienced educator. He has collaborated, recorded and performed with The Full English, Eliza Carthy, Martin Carthy, Jon Boden, Fay Hield and Emily Portman as well as creating his own theatre production Made In The Great War.