Sam Brookes South West
Sam Brookes South West unplugged tour – December 2011
Pete Roe, Emily and the Woods, Hot Feet and John Parker
New single “Forever Absent” released 14th November
“Musically, he excels at propulsive, narratively rich folk, delivered in a soaring, clear-as-a-bell singing voice that makes every word of his evocative, detailed lyrics count.” Sunday Times
“He generates an engaging sense of cosmic wonder.” Q Magazine
Two years ago a night of music started in a small upstairs room of a pub in Mayfair. Wooden floors and heavy old curtains made for the perfect setting of music in its purist form completely unamplified. While businessmen wined and dinned downstairs some of the finest acoustic music was being made and heard above their heads.
This December sees this wonderful night go on tour in the South West. The line up consists of Sam Brookes, Pete Roe, Emily and the woods, Hot Feet and John Parker (nizlopi). The tour kicks off on 11th December at Benjamin Perry Activities Centre, Bristol; 12th December at The Prince Albert in Stroud; 13th December at The Bell (Love Lounge), Bath; 15th December at The Black Dove, Brighton; 16th December at Old St Pancras Church, London.
Sam Brookes has also just announced the release of the 3rd single from his debut album ‘Sam Brookes. ‘Forever Absent’, a popular song from Sam’s live sets, released through Helium Records on 14th November. He has also just finished a full UK tour supporting Scott Matthews.
In the last year 24-year old Sam Brookes has played shows in bars, clubs, community centres and libraries as well as shows with Scott Matthews and Sarah Jarosz. Sam also toured with Ray Davies who dubbed him “absolutely amazing”. He has become something of an impresario on the burgeoning London folk scene, curating “The Unplugged Sessions”, a fortnightly club night in the London pub where he lives and works, which has featured performances from the man himself and fellow travellers Pete Roe, Lucy Rose and The Miserable Rich.
The youngest of five siblings Sam was raised in the London overspill new town of Bracknell near Reading. When his parents split in his mid teens he moved west to the spa town of Bath with his father, who ran a framing business and renovated old guitars. The workshop resounded to the sounds of Bert Jansch, Nick Drake, John Martyn and Richard Thompson, all key influences on the young Sam, who first picked up a guitar at 12 to strum ‘House Of The Rising Sun’ and went on to master the finger picking folk blues of Davy Graham. At 18 Sam joined his first group, a pop rock 4 piece called The Volt, who built up something of a local following, played Glastonbury, The Great Escape and Liverpool Soundcity and reached headline status at the O2 Academy in Bristol. Sam’s fast growing confidence as a songwriter was pulling the band towards the bucolic folk side of Led Zeppelin, when he decided one day to drop everything and head to London to seek his fortune. The rest of the band didn’t follow suit so The Volt was no more, and Sam was free to pursue his own modern soulful folk muse.
‘Forever Absent’ is taken from Sam’s eponymously titled debut album and is one of eight stream of consciousness gems that Sam has honed to a fine point, beautifully realized by producer Chris Hughes (Tears For Fears, Robert Plant, Paul McCartney).
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