Keepsakes
Sam Carter comes from a folk pedigree that makes this an album worth taking the time to listen to. From touring with Bellowhead, studying guitar with Martin Simpson through to his time as Emerging Artist in Residence at the Southbank Centre he has ‘paid his dues’ as a musician and a songwriter.
His debut full-length album opens with some very Simpson-esque guitar picking and a slightly disturbing song of working-class domestic violence, imprisonment and how life moves on. This is followed by a wonderfully wry song of unrequited love that showcases Carter’s ability as a wordsmith, with the best refrain “You flatten me like a pheasant on a country lane” and a most accurate description of package holidays to the mediterranean, “There in the midst of sunbathing Brits/ Determined to burn”.
It isn’t all singer-songwriter fare though. Carter’s interpretation of Oh Dear, Rue the Day with moody guitars, driving double bass and expressive percussion (with some great fiddle work from Bellowhead’s Sam Sweeney) accompanying the tale of love and betrayal. A different flavour is given to Captain which is dominated by a stand-out string arrangement by Sam Carter with Kit Massey.
The dividing line where folk music begins and ends is difficult, and probably rightly so. If it is, simply put, music from and about ordinary people then an album such as Sam’s certainly fits. But it is also much more than that, and folk music is developing an artistry all of its own in this current revival, and the musicianship, the creativity and the lyricism of a work of art such as this does the genre proud.
