MAKE YOUR MARK

Product Information

Underground explores the vulnerability of working people dismissed at will despite decades of loyalty. The tone is sombre but the protagonists survive. Whatsmore, “the far-off cry from the underground” persists when the silence is deafening. The most joyfully optimistic song of the album, a riotous jig called Change, finds Lakeman imploring “change is coming soon, my friends/changes through the land/change is round the corner in the eyes of every man.” “I will be with the morning when you rise” Freedom Fields helped Seth build on his traditional cult following but found him a whole new audience for his rhythmic, captivating brand of indie-folk song writing. He was named Folk Singer of the Year, and ‘ Freedom Fields’ awarded Album Of The Year at the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards in 2007. It’s like being on holiday,” says Seth Lakeman about his road trip with Joe Francis and Alex Hart. “ The three of us in a van.” Seth will be taking us on a tour of the folk and traditional music of the British Isles, exploring the distinct sounds of different regions.

All in all, Make Your Mark is a dramatic and tense but, ultimately, hopeful album. It’s driven by certainty in our capacity to take action for the greater good if we’re guided by love.

For Sale on Discogs

The set highlight, however, appears from nowhere. It’s a surprisingly effective arrangement of Coming For You Soon from the new album. Missing the fiddle from the recorded version, it finds Seth scrubbing out an ominous percussive rhythm as he sings of the valleys they betrayed. One that becomes increasingly intense, there’s a hint of Dylan apocalyptic fire or for a more contemporary analogy, adopting the sort of impassioned preacher delivery that fuels much of Martyn Joseph’s work. Shoals To Turn is moodily ominous. As Lakeman solemnly documents a scene of concerned silence while the protagonists are completely dependent on the vagaries of nature, we even hear the tense squeak of chord changes. To celebrate the 15 th anniversary, Seth will be playing a worldwide concert stream with his band playing the album which includes ‘ Lady of the Sea’, ‘King and Country’ and ‘ White Hare’ plus other favourites.

Higher We Aspire strikes as the obvious radio single, with keen positivity and shades of a folk Springsteen. “One hot, golden, summer’s day” Fallen Friend drops in on various groups of friends and strangers remembering the heroic deceased subject of the song. Lakeman explores what’s they’ve lost and what will endure. Seth Bernard Lakeman (born 26 March 1977) is an English singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist, who is most often associated with the fiddle and tenor guitar, but also plays the viola and banjo. Nominated for the 2005 Mercury Music Prize, Lakeman has belonged to several musical ensembles, including one with his two brothers, fellow folk musicians Sam Lakeman and Sean Lakeman, but has most recently established himself as a solo act. Seth says “ I’m really excited to be able to share the whole Freedom Fields album for its 15th anniversary! It’s a collection of songs hugely inspired by the Westcountry and it still seems to be the most popular album I’ve recorded so far. This is going to be pretty special. I hope you can tune in to watch!” Seth Lakeman takes a break from the Robert Plant musical juggernaut in Autumn 2018 to release his ninth studio album ‘The Well Worn Path’ on 26 October before heading out on tour in November with a new band line-up.Excited to announce new studio album Make Your Mark! The album features 14 new songs including first single Higher We Aspire. Side By Side champions collective action musically as well as lyrically, since the strength of the instrumentation increases with layers of support and volume.

Arriving timely on the heels of COP26 and with surely a nod to Extinction Rebellion, the slow walking rhythm ‘Hollow’ sounds an apocalyptic note as he asks “ Did you hear the final warning, too late too loud/Did you hear the people calling with no hope, no way out/Did you feel their anger rising, through the air and all around”. The Full English is a folk music digital archive project. Lakeman joined Fay Heild, Martin Simpson and others to create a Full English group to record folk songs for the archive, followed by a national tour. ( Topic, 7 October 2013) Constantly pairs close observation of the environment with the persistence of memory in an extended lament. The sustained note that opens Love Will Still Remain is mirrored by a similarly held note to close the record down. That’s fitting as the songs essentially explore the same premise. It wouldn’t be a proper folk album without a song about fishermen, and so Lakeman casts the nets out for the spare and atmospheric ‘Shoals To ‘Turn’ as he details “ a harvest moon on the sea tonight” and the wooden boats out on the bay waiting for the fish to head their way; naturally it comes with a built-in metaphor too.Recorded at Middle Farm Studios in Devon earlier this year as restrictions eased and produced by Seth himself, the album is being released on his own label, Honour Oak Records. Inspiration for the songs on his 11th studio album came from a range of subjects – from the environment to love, death and self-belief. In this four part series, Seth takes a look at the folk music found in Scotland, England, Wales, and Ireland, talking to some of its greatest proponents and asking what makes each tradition distinct. There’s a distinct organic live feel that inevitably comes from the bowing and the wooden instruments as he counts in several of the songs with cues to bring to us the feel of musicians playing together, live, in the same room. Standouts on first evidence are Love Will Still Remain (already elevated to the opening lot in concert) the excellent single Higher We Aspire and encore number Change. The former relies on a drone that evolves in to an ethnic fiddle line with the “ remaaaiiiinnn” chorus and the restrained march that carries the tune forward. Perhaps some of the Robert Plant influence rubbing off on Seth – either that our our boy showing the sort of chops that attracted old Planty in the first place. Anchored by drone and propelled by fiddle and Kearney’s solid marching beat drums, ‘Love Will Still Remain’ treats on a familiar folk theme of love enduring beyond death (“ I’ll still be here a word away/In silence and in space”) in the memories of times shared, the pizzicato (bouzouki?) notes of the slow paced ‘Bound To Someone’ guiding another number about an enduring relationship as it tells of a sailor (“ His face … rough and rugged… hard as the granite clifftop”) returning after years at sea to “ unwind the hard times” and try to rekindle the fire that went out with his leaving. Folk musician Seth marries his Cornish sweetheart | Western Morning News". Thisiscornwall.co.uk. 6 June 2012. Archived from the original on 5 May 2013 . Retrieved 14 November 2015.