MAKE YOUR MARK

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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. My seated tour of theatres, venues & cathedrals with the band starts at the end of the month. Supporting are Carus Thompson (28 Feb – 09 Mar) & Josienne Clarke (22 – 30 Mar). Limited availability at some shows. Don’t leave it too late! Irwin, Colin (3 July 2008). "Seth Lakeman: to the sea!". The Daily Telegraph. London . Retrieved 14 November 2015.

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. "The pandemic gave me a real determination to come out musically stronger and I really dug deep into myself for this album” says Seth “Being able to record and play with the band again was really quite spiritual” 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. His most recent album, Make Your Mark, was released in 2021. [8] Lakeman performing at Folk by the Oak Festival, Hatfield House in 2008 Awards [ edit ] 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. Bound To Someone is tender vignette, and Hart’s contribution is simply beautiful. We hear about the power of love to guide and persist across oceans. “It isn’t where you end up/it i sn’t where you start/it’s how you make your mark”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. 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.

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. And while I’d love to possibly hear a second/female voice on Fallen Friend (he has a couple of close relatives who might do a job…) Make Your Mark throws a spotlight on the sound of an evolving songwriter. Mature songs, subtle and stately arrangements – as constant as he ever was. Seth Lakeman has that ability to create something entirely contemporary from sounds that emerge from traditional music. The instrumentation and approach is firmly rooted in folk traditions, but the songs, themes and production resonate with modern expectations and feelings. It’s an impressive mix: songs which could not have been written anytime other than now; but, at the same time, using styles entirely familiar to an audience from 1821 or 1721. 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.Leading UK folk singer-songwriter Seth Lakeman has been very prolific since the release of his debut album ‘The Punch Bowl’ in 2002. Never one to repeat himself, Lakeman’s work has interwoven historical and local tales, while celebrating the essence of the folk genre. His last album, 2020’s ‘ A Pilgrim’s Tale’ was inspired by the Mayflower, but for his new album ‘Make Your Mark’, a record Lakeman considers a companion to his 2006 classic ‘Freedom Fields’, takes on broader themes inspired by the downtime the world has experienced thanks to the pandemic. 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. 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. Side By Side champions collective action musically as well as lyrically, since the strength of the instrumentation increases with layers of support and volume. The pandemic gave me a real determination to come out musically stronger and I really dug deep into myself for this album” says Seth “Being able to record and play with the band again was really quite spiritual”

Seth Lakeman was nominated for the Mercury Music Prize in 2005 for ‘Kitty Jay’. It catapulted Lakeman into the forefront of the new British folk movement and his follow up was the gold-selling ‘Freedom Fields’ which was released twice in 2006. Produced by his brother Sean Lakeman it came out on iScream and was then re-released by Relentless (EMI) where it went on to become Seth’s first of 6 UK Top 40 albums. 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)

Classical and Opera

Higher We Aspire strikes as the obvious radio single, with keen positivity and shades of a folk Springsteen. “One hot, golden, summer’s day” In March 2006 Lakeman began a UK tour to promote his new album Freedom Fields which was released on iScream. Produced again by Sean Lakeman, he signed to a new major record label, Relentless Records, promptly releasing a new single "Lady of the Sea" in early August 2006. This record went gold making it one of the biggest selling traditionally based folk records ever in the UK. [ citation needed]