Sam Carter (ENG)

Sam Carter

Midlands-born Sam Carter is a BBC Folk Award-winning singer-songwriter and guitarist renowned for his narrative-rich songwriting, which Uncut described as being 'as penetrating as Richard Thompson’s best work'. For over 15 years, he has been stirring audiences from Camden to Canada, from major festivals to intimate clubs. Carter’s expressive fingerpicking led Jon Boden of Bellowhead to call him 'the finest English-style fingerpicking guitarist of his generation,' while Ivor Novello-winner Nitin Sawhney has praised his 'killer voice.'

With a discography that spans six solo albums and two releases with the folk-rock band False Lights, Carter’s music reflects a blend of traditional English folk, shape-note singing, and rock. Notable highlights in his career include a spellbinding performance on Later… with Jools Holland, where he played songs from his shape-note-inspired album The No Testament alongside renowned fiddler Sam Sweeney.

Carter’s latest release, the acclaimed Top 40 Folk Chart album Silver Horizon, has cemented his reputation as a skilful blender of ancient and modern. Produced by Andy Bell at the remote Red Kite Studios in Wales, the album's 11 indie-folk songs create a dreamlike soundscape, with guitarist Stuart McCallum (The Breath) adding lush, reverb-soaked textures. Carter says of this work, “I’m still dealing with themes of love, loss, and change... but sketching events in an impressionistic way gives the songs more room to breathe.”

Sam Carter’s live performances are nothing short of captivating, filled with the raw honesty, humour, and skilled musicianship that underscore his standing as one of contemporary folk’s brightest talents.

‘Sam Carter is a brilliant guitarist and songwriter who combines the observational with social comment and personal reflection’ - Songlines

‘A singer who can hold the audience spellbound all by himself’ - R2

‘Really wonderful’ - Jools Holland

Basset (CAN)

Toronto-based folk duo, Basset, are full of timeless heart. Acoustic songwriters Sam Clark and Yasmine Shelton will take you through city streets in the hours before the world has woken, or to a corrugated steel home north of the treeline.

Basset bring a deep love of the natural world to their gorgeously meditative and assured debut album, In The Clay (September 2022). Produced by Joshua Van Tassel (Sarah Slean, David Myles), the ten songs on In The Clay explore various themes of life in change, Shelton and Clark’s travels around Northern Ontario, the Canadian and American prairies, their lives in Toronto, and the many characters who have crossed their paths. With comparisons to The Milk Carton Kids, Hozier, and Bon Iver, their inventiveness shines on fiddle and intricate harmonies, with Shelton and Clark’s voices wrapping around each other like twin flames in a warm fire.

‘The folk harmonies, though, are what really won my heart over with this song. The duo remind me a little of the Milk Carton Kids blended with a Rawling Welch style as well. It's an outstanding sound... Close your eyes and listen; I bet these harmonies will give you chills.’ - Ear to the Ground