Words and photo by Dawn
Sam Sweeney is not only one of the most innovative fiddle
players in contemporary folk music, he’s also a real joy to speak to. A former BBC
Radio 2 Folk Musician of the Year, he’s possibly best known for his work with the
mighty Bellowhead but splits his time between that and many other musical
projects. With a Leveret tour in March, closely followed by another with his
Sam Sweeney Trio, I took the chance to have a chat to him about everything he
has on the horizon.
Fresh from a trip to Belgium for Fiddlers On The Move – (“an
extraordinary experience… all fiddle players must go!”) – his enthusiasm is
contagious as he explains that Leveret has been a major focus for him recently,
and the band have even created a new book which contains all the tunes from
their latest record, plus more.
After the intensity of his acclaimed 2022 solo album Escape
That he found himself craving a different kind of musical space. “I put so much
into that, so much of myself,” he reflects. “It was quite a draining process. I
sort of thought, maybe I won’t do something with my name on it again for a
bit.” Leveret, by contrast, offers more freedom. “We just turn up and play with
no arrangements or anything, so there’s nothing to remember. It’s great.
“Obviously we did a Bellowhead tour in ‘24 and we've got
another one this autumn, and I'm preparing for this Sam Sweeney Trio tour.”
The tour begins in London in April and ends at Teignmouth
Folk Festival in June, marking a celebration of his solo catalogue before he
shifts focus. “These will be the last gigs of my own material for a good
while,” he says. Joined by Louis Campbell and Ben Nicholls, he’ll be revisiting
music from his vast back catalogue. “It's very much not a goodbye, but this is
the end of Sam Sweeney with his own name on it for a bit, and I'm starting a
new fiddle duo instead.”
This new collaboration with long‑time friend Grace Smith came
about almost by accident. “I’ve wanted to be in a fiddle duo for years,” he
says. “A lot of countries have it as a format for playing traditional music,
but we’re kind of weird in England not having the fiddle duo as a thing. Grace
had a solo gig at the Manchester Folk Festival and asked if I’d join her for a
few tunes. In a day or two we worked up about four tunes and we both went, ‘That
was so much fun. Let’s do it.’ So we’ve done a couple of gigs already and we've
recorded an album, which is going to come out this summer.” He laughs, “She's
the ultimate touring partner because she's very, very relaxed - which
is completely the opposite to me! I’m really looking forward to it.”
Sam’s musical world is full of contrasts. When asked if he
has a favourite of all his projects, he talks about “musical buckets” - a
concept he picked up when he ran the National Youth Folk Ensemble. “There was a
brilliant woman who came in to do some evaluation work with the young people,
and she used to talk about musical buckets and which of your buckets are full. With
Bellowhead, every two years I get to jump around like a lunatic and pretend I’m
a rock star for 90 minutes. That seems to be quite important for my happiness. But
then of course, at the other end of the scale, in Leveret we just sit on chairs
and we close our eyes and play and it's a totally different experience. But I
also need that musical bucket filling.”
His solo work scratches a different itch again. “Escape That
is the best thing I’ve ever done,” he admits. “I still listen to it, and I’m
not ashamed of it. Whereas most things that I do a year or two after, it's
like, ‘oh my God, that wasn't so good, was it? I wish I'd done it a little bit
better.’”
Despite his roots being deep in folk, Sweeney doesn’t listen
to much of it at home. “I don’t really engage with folk music as a consumer,”
he says. “I’m a pop music fan.” Recent gigs include Aurora - “one of the best
concerts I’ve ever seen” - and Avril Lavigne, whom he calls his “ultimate
hero.” But he’s heartened by the surge of young English folk musicians emerging
today, including Louis Campbell and Owen Spafford. “They were signed to Real
World Records last year and released an album, and they've been playing all
over the world. It’s amazing to see. I’d never say I was responsible, but it's
just amazing to have taught them for a bit of time and hopefully I helped them
on their journey.”
The return of Bellowhead – who called it a day in 2016 but
then reformed after lockdown - has been both joyful and bittersweet. Their 2022
reunion tour was overshadowed by the sudden loss of bandmate Paul Sartin just
weeks before the tour. “It was meant to be a huge happy celebration,” Sam says,
“and then of course it became three weeks of grieving Paul. But actually it was
better to do that together.” The 2024 tour brought happier memories, but then just
before Christmas 2025 the band lost another member, Ed Neuhauser.
“On the one hand, yeah, it's like it's the happiest and most
brilliant thing and I'm incredibly pleased that it exists. And on the other
it’s tinged with sadness, and it will be again this November, ‘cause we're
missing Ed. So there's very much two sides to it. But Bellowhead are like a
huge, very dysfunctional family. So I think actually the best way of grieving
for Ed will be to be together and remember all the times with him
and be very silly on stage and do all of that because that's ultimately what he
would want us to do.
“When we decided to get back together in ’22 it was like, ‘Actually,
this band makes audiences really, really happy.’ And what people need right now
in this insane world is to be happy.”
