Sam Lee

Sam Lee is a Mercury Prize nominated folk singer, song collector, promoter, broadcaster, animateur, and naturalist.

Lee originally became known as a traditional music specialist dedicated to collecting, restoring and sharing ancient music from Britain and Ireland.

In 2016, Lee won the Best Traditional Song category at the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards for his version of the song ‘Lovely Molly’. His most recent album, ‘The Fade in Time’ was released to acclaim in the US by Thirty Tigers, and was featured on NPR’s Top 50 albums of 2015.

Lee has performed with his band, Sam Lee and Friends, in over 30 countries, making regular appearances on radio and television, including a performance on Later with Jools Holland.

His music is steeped in traditional folklore, often drawn directly from collected songs, handed to him by members of the Traveller and Gypsy communities. His eclectic approach extends these songs to incorporate elements of Bollywood beats, Polynesian rhythms and contemporary classical music with Lee’s own field recordings.

In 2013, Lee travelled to Bangladesh to take part in a week-long residency, performing with leading Bangladeshi folk musicians at the Rabindra Sharobar Amphitheatre in Dhaka.

Before becoming a folk singer, Lee was a wilderness survival expert, and once travelled as a student of Ray Mears.