Introduction
Seth Lakeman was nominated for the Mercury Music Prize in 2005 for ‘Kitty Jay’. It catapulted Lakeman into the forefront of the new British folk movement and his follow up was the gold-selling ‘Freedom Fields’ which was released twice in 2006. Produced by his brother Sean Lakeman it came out on iScream and was then re-released by Relentless (EMI) where it went on to become Seth’s first of 6 UK Top 40 albums.
Seth released new album ‘A Pilgrim’s Tale’ in February 2020, a year that marked four centuries since The Mayflower ship departed the UK. The album was released amidst a selection of UK concerts where Seth visited locations significant to The Mayflower tale. The record is narrated by the actor Paul McGann (Dr Who/Withnail and I/Hornblower/Luther), and features a host of guest performers including Cara Dillon, Benji Kirkpatrick, Ben Nicholls and Seth’s father Geoff Lakeman. Recorded on the last night of the tour in February 2020 ‘Live at St Andrew’s Church in Plymouth’ has been released on double CD.
2021 is the 15th anniversary of Freedom Fields and Seth played a one-off, online global broadcast with his band in February to celebrate the anniversary playing the album in its entirety plus other favourites. In March, Seth performed ‘How We Remember’ (A Song For Devon) with singers from across the county as part of the national Song For Us project organised by Song UK and supported by Arts Council England.
