Sam Lee today releases his much-praised new album ‘Old Wow’ (out now via Cooking Vinyl) - stream here. Lee is celebrating the release with the announcement that the album’s producer, Bernard Butler (Suede, McAlmont & Butler) will be joining him as a very special guest at his forthcoming London EartH headline on February 17, 2020. The show is part of a 16 date UK tour from Mercury Prize-nominee Sam, commencing at this year’s Celtic Connections on January 29, 2020. Watch the new video for Sam’s latest single ‘Lay This Body Down’ here.
‘Old Wow’ follows Sam’s Mercury Prize-nominated and Arts Foundation Award-winning debut album, ‘Ground of Its Own’ (2012), and 2015’s equally acclaimed ‘The Fade in Time’ which included the BBC Radio 2 Folk Award-winning song ‘Lovely Molly’ . Not only a multi-award-winning singer, Lee is also a committed folk song collector and a successful live promoter helping to reinvigorate UK folk music, as well as a committed climate change and conservation activist . Recorded at RAK Studios and Studio 355 with Bernard Butler's production, ‘Old Wow’ pushes Sam’s music into further remarkable territory. Butler’s electric guitar playing marks the first time it has ever appeared in Lee’s music, whilst Elizabeth Fraser’s (Cocteau Twins) spine-tingling vocals join other appearances from Cosmo Sheldrake, spoken-word poet Dizraeli and The Gloaming’s Caoimhin O Raghallaigh. ‘Old Wow’ is devoted to the natural world in the age of climate crisis; a commitment that has long since dominated Sam’s principles. A passionate conservationist & environmental campaigner, Sam has recently collaborated with Extinction Rebellion, Music Declares Emergency and the recent RSPB campaign, ‘Let Nature Sing’, which improbably launched 3 minutes of birdsong into the UK Top 20 charts.
Spanning new interpretations of American spirituals, Romany Gypsy songs and traditional English standards, ‘Old Wow’ arrives alongside artwork designed by Alex Merry (Damien Hirst, Gucci). With ‘Old Wow’, Sam Lee has created a timeless bridge; in his words: “Music that simultaneously looks back into the past and ahead to the future. An urgent cry to help inspire us all to fall back in love with the natural world that we might strengthen our resolve to protect her.’
TOUR DATES
29 January 2020 Glasgow Glasgow Royal Concert Hall (Strathclyde Suite)
31 January 2020 Newcastle Cluny
01 February 2020 Manchester Night and Day
03 February 2020 Nottingham Rescue Rooms
04 February 2020 Leeds City Varieties
05 February 2020 Birmingham Glee
06 February 2020 Exeter Phoenix
07 February 2020 Bodmin St Petroc’s Church
08 February 2020 Lyme Regis Marine Theatre
10 February 2020 Cambridge Junction 2
13 February 2020 Brighton St George’s
15 February 2020 Canterbury Gulbenkian Theatre
16 February 2020 Norwich Open
17 February 2020 London EartH
