Introduction
A subgenre of music, culture, and thought that has been nearly forgotten in the modern age has found a resurgence in the new album songdreaming by Sam Lee. In my opinion, Sam is one of the few folksingers today, regardless of any genre, that has been able to conjure up worlds that live in our archetypes, ancestral memory, and truly, our blood.
You may ask, what value does folk music have to the world of the humanities? I would argue, everything. The reason is because when we look out into the world around us, we see creation and we see beauty. The green earth that we have been given is often becoming farther away from our daily routines as we progress into the techno-industrial age. Folk music allows us to return to tradition, to family, and to our true home. Our true home is our culture, wherever we may be geographically.
English Folk Music
English folk music has taken a minor role in the last few decades in relation to the growing popularity of Irish and Scottish music, which have grown as of late due to their widespread usage on Instagram and TikTok. If one is watching an Instagram reel on traveling to Ireland or Scotland, it will likely have music accompanying the video respective to those places. This is most often not the case with England, as who is promoting English folk music? There is no shortage of people making content about visting England and it’s idyllic villages that still remain, so why has the music gone away?
Folk music is one of the first sources of cultural downflow, as it is at the top of the metaphorical river. Poetry and folk music go hand in hand, only to be elaborated on by philosophy, psychology, and literature. At this point the culture is no longer new, if it is being analyzed in a psychological light. So how do we generate folk music?
I would argue that folk music is not generated so much as it is stumbled upon. One does not sit down and write folk music, it simply comes to them. It is who they are, the stories of the people around them, and the collective memory of a people and culture. It is as though one asks, where does culture come from? It comes from our lives, our experiences, and our greatest loves and tragedies.
So how is English folk seeing a revival you ask? Sam Lee.
The Album: songdreaming
Sam has been active in the English folk scene for a long while now, and I have been listening to him for two years now, but now in his new album, I think he has cracked into the mainstream. I could describe him as a male Lana Del Ray immersed in a millennia of the culture of the English countryside. Perhaps he could be seen as a traveling bard reminding us of centuries gone by, of a once growing culture? Maybe he is a creative, an artist, a storyteller. Perhaps, he is much more to someone else, depending on your own disposition.
I would argue he is all of the above, and much, much more.
In his new album “songdreaming” I believe that Sam has put together a collection of songs that unite both the past, and the current musical understanding of the next generation. As Cosmo Sheldrake succeeded in reaching the folk mainstream (which is increasingly simply just the mainstream) Sam I believe reaches this level in this album.
Abundance In Imagery
Something that popular music has long lost is imagery. People nowadays are craving meaning, in their religion, traditions, culture, and of course, their music. This is what Sam is able to provide in this album, as he speaks on nature, relationships, and the exclusive culture of old England. When one listens to the album, they are transported beyond their mind to the antediluvian forests of an age nevermore to return, while at the same time feeling as though a traveler from distant lands has come to their town square to share with them equally a tune and a story. It is an emphasis on beauty that works its way through the album, with a special longing for nature, pure and in its finest form. One wants to break free from the walls of their home to frolic the fields of grass waving in and out like the tide. Tangerine and violet skies make their appearance in this world, equally as much as the crystal river in the ancient village, which one may believe still exists, and in the world that Sam conjures up, it does.
A Blueprint For The Future of Folk
I believe that Sam provides a blueprint for the future of folk music, on both a cultural and commercial basis. Folk music is not intended to be bought, sold, and whisked away as pop music on the charts, but its usage comes about organically from the people. Folk music has a growing place in society, and I believe it will continue to expand and become more prevalent both in music and culture as songs are used in reels, shorts, TikToks, and other such short-form content. That is the town square of content, where music can truly take off and have a whole different life of its own than the musician’s intent, which I believe is a beautiful and creative thing. The future is traditional, cultural, ancestral, and natural, and in songdreaming Sam Lee affirms just that.
Listen to Sam Lee
Youtube, Spotify, Sam’s Website
