Sam Sweeney


Sam Sweeney is a multi-instrumental English folk musician.
WWW Official Site

Career

Sweeney was introduced to folk music as a child via his parents' record collection and taught himself to play traditional pieces by ear. He started playing the fiddle at age six, and first performed as a soloist at folk festivals in 2001. From 2002 to 2010, he was part of the East Midlands-based folk band Kerfuffle, playing fiddle, viola, and cajon, and singing. When Kerfuffle disbanded, Sweeney continued playing with accordion player and singer Hannah James as the duo Hannah James and Sam Sweeney.
From 2008 to 2016, he became a member of the award-winning eleven-piece folk band Bellowhead, playing fiddle and English bagpipes, as a replacement for former member Giles Lewin. Sweeney played with Bellowhead until their final gig in May 2016 at Oxford Town Hall.
He has toured with Jon Boden and the Remnant Kings, playing both drums and fiddle, sometimes simultaneously.
He is also a member of Fay Hield's band, originally named the Fay Hield Trio but as of 2012 called Fay Hield & The Hurricane Party, and took part in The Full English album and tour in 2013.
Together with Andy Cutting and Rob Harbron, he formed English folk supergroup Leveret in 2015.
Sweeney helped set up the UK's National Youth Folk Ensemble, an EFDSS programme that introduces young people to folk music through schools, community settings and residential courses. He was appointed inaugural Artistic Director of the Ensemble in 2015.
In 2018, he started his solo career with the album The Unfinished Violin. Two years later in 2020, he followed it with his second album Unearth Repeat. Then, he released an album called Escape That in 2022. That album was used as support to Bellowhead reuniting for a November 2022 tour for the tenth anniversary of the band's album Broadside. He also played alongside his Bellowhead bandmates during the tour. The band decided to reunite after doing a virtual concert during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Awards

Sweeney has won a number of awards including the 'In The Tradition' award and the 'Wiltshire Folk Association Young Folk Award', which he won for two years in succession. He was also a nominated in the 2004 BBC Young Folk Awards. In 2007 he won one of five BBC Performing Arts Fund bursaries to help him start his musical career. Sweeney was nominated for the 'Musician of the Year' award at the 2013 BBC [Radio 2 Folk Awards] and won this award at the 2015 BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards.
His album Unearth Repeat was voted "Album of the Year" for 2020 by Bright Young Folk readers with almost the 36% of the votes.

Discography

YearTitleBand Ref
2003Not to ScaleKerfuffle
2004K2Kerfuffle
2005Sleeping at the Station
2006LinksKerfuffle
2008To the GroundKerfuffle
2008MatachinBellowhead
2009UmbrellowheadBellowhead
2009Lighten the Dark: A Midwinter AlbumKerfuffle
2009Catches and GleesHannah James and Sam Sweeney
2009Keepsakes
2010HedonismBellowhead
2010Looking Glass
2010No Man's Fool
2010Born to Wander
2010A New DawnCircus Envy
2011RegretCircus Envy
2012The No Testament
2012State and AncientryHannah James and Sam Sweeney
2012BroadsideBellowhead
2012Orfeo
2014RevivalBellowhead
2014Made in the Great WarSolo
2015New AnythingLeveret
2016Old Adam
2016How the City Sings
2016In the RoundLeveret
2017Big Machine
2017InventionsLeveret
2018The Unfinished ViolinSolo
2019DiversionsLeveret
2020Variations LiveLeveret
2020Unearth RepeatSolo
2022Escape ThatSolo-
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