Sam Lee is bringing his Old World sounds to North America. The 35-year-old British folk singer and accumulator/curator of traditional music just released The Fade in Time in the US in June through Thirty Tigers. It’s a weird and wonderful collection and reinterpretation of ancient folk songs with English, Scottish, Irish, and Gypsy roots. Lee is currently touring in both the US and Canada behind the album.
While the lyrics may be centuries old, in Lee’s capable hands, the tunes are fresh, even edgy, and without a doubt, gorgeous. Lee’s voice is haunting and emotive, and his band, Jon Whitten (Mongolian dulcimer, ukulele, Jew’s harp), Flora Curzon (violin) and Josh Green (percussion), is exceptional. The result is compelling and quite beautiful.
Lee is a Mercury Prize-nominated musician. For those on this side of the pond, this prestigious award recognizes the best of UK and Irish music and the artists who produce it. Intriguingly, Lee has also spent time as a forager, wilderness expert and survivalist. His press even claims he can include “burlesque dancer” on his resume, as well.
Completely curious, I couldn’t resist the opportunity to ask Lee a few questions.
JWW: You are relatively young. What drives your interest in this kind of music? Is it the music itself or its place in history/culture? Both?
SL: I am never sure my youth has anything to do with my love of the music. A curious, if unusual, love of spending time in the company of very old people probably helps, but I think the privilege of seeing through the eyes of history is what is so exciting about the work in finding these songs.
JWW: How important is it to keep traditional music alive and why?
SL: It is vital. Without people like myself capturing, interpreting and projecting onwards this rare and vanishing culture, we would arrive at a time where all the context of who we as a community are and have emerged from will disappear. Our stories will be forgotten and the cord that connects us to our lineage will fray too thin, leaving us to become a generation thinking only about ourselves and the future.
JWW: Many of the tracks on your new release The Fade in Time have been given a distinctly modern (and very cool) interpretation. When you’re arranging and recording, do you put any limits on how far from the “original/traditional” sound of the song you can stray while still staying true to that tradition? From where are you drawing inspiration for your interpretation (lyrics? instrumentation?)
SL: Well the great thing is all I am starting with is a set of lyrics and a tune… no instrumentation at all. So where I go from there is completely up to me. Traditional songs in the UK, unlike the US, never had any instrumentation in the old day, so I am sort of allowed to do whatever I like. My philosophy is to be radical and experimental and subversive, but always stay true to the song and listen, always listen, to the song and what it needs. I do trust them to be robust and malleable things that love to be embraced and tickled in new ways.
JWW: In the US, there has been a real resurgence in traditional instrumentation and older musical genres with younger musicians and a younger audience. What is it about these traditional forms of music that seems to resonate with modern audiences?
SL: In all honesty, I don’t think there is one simple answer. People come to these sounds and genres for so many different reasons. The egalitarian aspect of folk music means people can play them and are allowed… contradictory to the consumer based role music plays in non engagement-led arenas like pop music. But I also think that Folk music appeals to people who are growing more and more detached from senses of community, and this music thrives in that environment, so it encourages a bringing together of folks to share and experience in unity. There are exceptions to all these statements, and people I meet love it for completely different reasons than I ever imagined. I will be interested to see how the North American crowds react and also what their response is to this UK stuff we make.
*Photo Credit: Frederic Aranda
