Samuel Charles Lakeman (born 6 November 1975) is an English musician, songwriter, and producer and co-owner of Charcoal Records. Lakeman was brought up in the village of Buckland Monachorum, near Yelverton, Devon,

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

, with his brothers, fellow musicians Seth Lakeman and Sean Lakeman. He currently lives in

Frome Frome ( ) is a town and civil parish in Somerset, England, on uneven high ground at the eastern end of the Mendip Hills and on the River Frome, south of Bath. The population of the parish was 28,559 in 2021. Frome was one of the largest tow ...

, Somerset, UK, with his wife, the award-winning Northern Irish singer

Cara Dillon Cara Elizabeth Dillon (born 21 July 1975, in Dungiven, County Londonderry, Northern Ireland) is a Northern Irish folk singer. In 1995, she joined the folk supergroup Equation and signed a record deal with Warners Music Group. After leaving t ...

, and their three children.

Career

Sam began playing music with his parents and two brothers

Seth Seth, in the Abrahamic religions, was the third son of Adam and Eve. The Hebrew Bible names two of his siblings (although it also states that he had others): his brothers Cain and Abel. According to , Seth was born after Abel's murder by Cain, ...

and

Sean Sean, also spelled Seán or Séan in Hiberno-English, is a male given name of Irish origin. It comes from the Irish versions of the Biblical Hebrew name '' Yohanan'' (), Seán ( anglicized as '' Shaun/ Shawn/ Shon'') and Séan (Ulster variant; a ...

at an early age. As a family band they started playing at festivals, and small concerts. Lakeman and his siblings formed The Lakeman Brothers in the early 1990s – with Sam on piano/keyboards, Seth Lakeman on fiddle, and Sean Lakeman on guitar. The brothers toured throughout the UK and Europe during weekends and school holidays, performing at festivals and venues winning critical acclaim for their musical abilities, compositions and fresh arrangements of traditional tunes. The trio wrote and produced the album 'Three Piece Suite' (1994). In the late part of 1994 they were invited by two Yorkshire based singers

Kathryn Roberts Kathryn Roberts is an English folk singer, from Barnsley, South Yorkshire. Early career Roberts' first released recordings were on the album ''Intuition'', a collection of songs by various South Yorkshire folk artists which also included h ...

and

Kate Rusby Kate Anna Rusby (born 4 December 1973) is an English folk singer-songwriter from Penistone, West Riding of Yorkshire, England. Sometimes called the "Barnsley Nightingale", she has headlined various British folk festivals, and is one of the be ...

to join them as a backing group on a tour of

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic, is a country on the Iberian Peninsula in Southwestern Europe. Featuring Cabo da Roca, the westernmost point in continental Europe, Portugal borders Spain to its north and east, with which it share ...

. After the tour the five musicians became a permanent group and called themselves

Equation In mathematics, an equation is a mathematical formula that expresses the equality of two expressions, by connecting them with the equals sign . The word ''equation'' and its cognates in other languages may have subtly different meanings; for ...

. Shortly after

replaced Kate Rusby in the summer of 1995, the group signed a major record deal with

Blanco y Negro Blanco y Negro Records (Spanish: "White and Black"), a subsidiary of WEA Records Ltd., was established in 1983 by Geoff Travis of Rough Trade Records and Mike Alway of él Records. Michel Duval of Les Disques du Crépuscule was also involve ...

(part of

Warner Music Group Warner Music Group Corp., commonly abbreviated as WMG, is an American Multinational corporation, multinational entertainment and record label Conglomerate (company), conglomerate headquartered in New York City. It is one of the "Record label#M ...

) and recorded an album at

Peter Gabriel Peter Brian Gabriel (born 13 February 1950) is an English singer, songwriter, musician, and human rights activist. He came to prominence as the original frontman of the rock band Genesis. He left the band in 1975 and launched a solo career wit ...

's Realworld Studios in winter 1995–'96. The album, entitled ''Return to Me'', was produced by David Bottrill. There was a single release, "He Loves Me", with an accompanying promotional video. The band performed on

MTV MTV (an initialism of Music Television) is an American cable television television channel, channel and the flagship property of the MTV Entertainment Group sub-division of the Paramount Media Networks division of Paramount Global. Launched on ...

and

VH1 VH1 (originally an initialism for Video Hits One) is an American basic cable television network that launched on January 1, 1985, and is currently owned by the MTV Entertainment Group unit of Paramount Global's networks division based in New Y ...

, but weeks before the release of the album the record label shelved it. It was not released in 1996, but in 2003 it saw a release under Rough Trade after

Geoff Travis Geoff Travis (born 2 February 1952) is the founder of both Rough Trade Records and the Rough Trade chain of record shops. A former drama teacher and owner of a punk record shop, Travis founded the Rough Trade label in 1976. Biography Travis wa ...

(the band's A+R) bought its rights. Lakeman left

along with Dillon and the duo was known as Polar Star. During this time Lakeman formed a strong musical partnership with Dillon. They recorded several albums with top songwriters and producers in the UK and San Francisco, but none of this work was released. By 2000, Lakeman and Dillon had decided that they would never be able to give the label what they wanted. Circa summer 2000, Dillon and Lakeman ended their five-year relationship with

and signed to Indie label

Rough Trade Records Rough Trade Records is an independent record label based in London, England. It was formed in 1976 by Geoff Travis, who had opened a record store off Ladbroke Grove. It is currently run by co-managing directors Travis and Jeannette Lee and ...

under the guidance of their then manager

. On

Sam produced, co-wrote and recorded all three of Cara's albums and toured with her to promote all the releases. Lakeman has produced, co-wrote, arranged and recorded all seven of Dillon's solo albums to date as well as featuring on piano, acoustic guitar, hammond organ, harmonium and percussion. He was co-producer and musical director on The Redcastle Sessions (DVD) and was executive producer and musical director for the DVD "Cara Dillon – Live at the Grand Opera House", he has performed, produced and mixed for a variety of artists including Seth Lakeman,

Ian Anderson Ian Scott Anderson (born 10 August 1947) is a British musician best known for being the chief vocalist, Flute, flautist, and acoustic guitarist of the British rock band Jethro Tull (band), Jethro Tull. He is a multi-instrumentalist who also p ...

, and Disney. He has toured the world performing at festivals or in concert halls in Europe, China, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, South Korea, the US and Canada. After completing their record contract with Rough Trade, Lakeman and Dillon formed Charcoal Records in 2008 and released Cara's fourth album ''

Hill of Thieves ''Hill of Thieves'' is the fourth solo album by Irish folk singer Cara Dillon. It is her first full-length release on Charcoal Records, the label formed in 2008 with her musical partner and husband Sam Lakeman. The album was recorded and produce ...

'' in January 2009. In February 2010 It won the BBC Radio 2 Folk Award for "Album of the Year". Charcoal has gone on to release, "Upon A Winter's Night" in 2016 and "Wanderer" in 2017. Lakeman has also produced albums for John Smith including Headlong (2017), Hummingbird (2018) and The Fray (2021).

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lakeman, Sam English folk musicians English folk singers Living people People from Buckland Monachorum 1975 births English male singer-songwriters English singer-songwriters English record producers People from Frome Musicians from Devon 21st-century English singers The Lakeman Brothers members Equation (band) members