Interview: Folk singer and song collector Sam Lee

Sam Lee – The Fade in Time by Frederic Aranda

Sam Lee was educated at Chelsea School of Art, perhaps a strange breeding ground for a folk singer. “I did Fine Art but I kept it quite nature-based,” he recalls. But then he went on to partake in foraging and worked as a wilderness expert. “I’ve spent my life growing up in the outdoors with nature so foraging was something that I gravitated towards, taking people into the woods and teaching them the ways of the wild.” But where did the burlesque dancing fit in? “The two [burlesque and wilderness] were very separate parts of my life and one craved the other!”

But his biggest influence has been the time he spent with the late Stanley Robertson. “Stanley was a traveller and introduced me to a whole ancient way of singing and being, more than just the music, the whole folk culture. It goes back so far and has such a deep root in ancient culture. He taught me the importance of keeping it alive, like a flame that mustn’t go out. This stuff is rich and powerful, that was the thing he taught me most of all.”

Stanley Robertson Photograph: Derek Ironside/Newsline Scotland

And as well as a folk singer Sam is very much intent on collecting folk songs for posterity. “I spend a lot of time travelling around the British Isles and Ireland knocking on caravan doors that usually wouldn’t have accepted strangers like me and they’ve taken me in to share their music. So I’ve been able to record and document this and being able to use these songs in my music and pass them on to other singers. As well as making them accessible to the actual families themselves who don’t have the means to record it.”

So in terms of themes for the songs there is a depth and profundity that could only be found at its folk roots. “A lot of the songs are ancient songs and they are old stories that tell about classic tales of the human condition: issues of mankind. It’s about the complex and diverse range of situations and these are timeless. So I think I’ve always been attracted to the ones that have got this kind of ancientness about them – heartbreak, loss and longing, these are things we will always experience as a species and those are the sorts of songs I’ve gravitated towards.”

James Ward: Gordale Scar (A View of Gordale, in the Manor of East Malham in Craven, Yorkshire, the Property of Lord Ribblesdale)

There is a simplicity and directness to his work. “I believe that the most powerful and direct roots are often the most simple, narratively speaking. Musically we are creating something that is complex and diverse but we try to come across as accessible. But the singing is very direct.”

And this is a homecoming gig for Sam. “I played Howard Assembly Room only a year ago and it’s got beautiful acoustics and I love the wooden interior and I’m looking forward to being back a lot. I grew up in Leeds but my childhood memory is begging my Dad to take me to Gordale Scar so I was never a big city fan, although I grew up in one, I was always craving my parents to take me out to the Dales.”

Sam plays at Howard Assembly Room, Leeds, 12 March 2016