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Sam Lee

Artist, Singing With Nightingales

Sam Lee holds a unique place in British music as a Mercury Prize-nominated singer, inventive arranger, song collector, folksong interpreter, conservationist, and creator of live events. His work consistently challenges what traditional music can be—bridging heritage with bold innovation and breathing new life into ancient songs. His journey began with the groundbreaking 2012 debut Ground Of Its Own, a striking blend of traditional and contemporary sounds that earned a Mercury Prize shortlist and was supported by a prestigious Arts Foundation award. It signaled Sam’s immediate and distinct presence on the folk and wider music scene. He followed with albums The Fade In Time and Old Wow, both further showcasing his talent for fusing old and new, earning recognition from Songlines (Artist of the Year) and BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards. His 2024 album songdreaming marked another creative peak—named one of Mojo’s Top 10 Folk Albums of the Year and awarded Best European Album at the 2024 Songlines Music Awards. It has remained a fixture on the Official Folk Albums Chart. Songlines magazine wrote: “We’ve seen Sam Lee progress from wunderkind singer and song collector to a respected spokesperson of the planet, its custodians (of all species) and its sounds… A folk voice for the England of the 21st century.” Beyond music, Sam is a storyteller and environmental advocate. In 2021, he published The Nightingale: Notes on a Songbird, exploring the legacy of the bird in folklore, music, and ecology. As a regular voice on radio and TV, and a skilled composer for film, his songs have appeared in major productions including King Arthur (2017), The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry (2023), and Speak No Evil (2024) starring James McAvoy. He is the founder of The Nest Collective, an influential platform for folk, global, and acoustic music, active for over a decade. A committed activist, Sam co-founded Music Declares Emergency, served on the boards of the UK’s Featured Artists Coalition and the US Folk Alliance International, and partnered with EarthPercent to donate a portion of album proceeds to environmental causes. Sam’s deep connection to music and nature was sparked in his childhood in Kentish Town and shaped by summers at Forest School Camps. His artistry has been deeply influenced by mentors such as Scottish Traveller singer Stanley Robertson and by years of collecting songs from Gypsy and Traveller communities across the UK. With every project, Sam Lee affirms that tradition and transformation can exist hand-in-hand—creating work that is musically rich, socially conscious, and deeply rooted in the cultural and natural world.

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