Sam Lee - Old Wow (2020) [Official Digital Download 24/96]

And now comes ‘Old Wow’, yet another dramatic change of musical direction where, for the first time, Sam includes the instrument most notably absent from his recording career, the guitar and electric guitar at that, played by the album’s producer Bernard Butler (of Suede and McAlmont & Butler fame). Sam explains, “but only because it’s played so beautifully and sensitively and you wouldn’t necessarily know it was guitar at all”. Other musicians involved include what he calls the “classic line-up” of piano (James Keay), bass (Misha Mullov-Addado) and percussion (Josh Green), along with Caoimhin Ó Raghallaigh of the acclaimed band The Gloaming (on Hardanger violin). Guest vocals are also contributed to the album with a remarkable appearance by Elizabeth Fraser of the Cocteau Twins, plus splendid harmonies from Cosmo Sheldrake and spoken word poet Dizraeli.

It’s a thoughtful, soaring and moving set of songs, dominated by Sam’s soulful and sensitive vocals and no cliché in saying it’s his most assured recording to date. This is no coincidence being an album devoted to his love and passion for the natural world; a commitment that has dominated Sam’s heart and non-musical practice for many more years than he’s been singing. ‘Old Wow’ has become for Sam an epithet to that quality innate within nature to create wonder and connection. It came to him, he says, while on a vision questing journey on a Scottish mountainside “during a time of questioning of what was going on between me and nature, a bit of relationship counselling with an old lover if you like” in a moment of existential crisis “a buzzard came swooping down and screeched right over my head then circled above me for some while sounding down onto me. At that moment I felt the presence and reassurance of this magical power and suddenly at that moment the name appeared, Old Wow, and I’ve held onto it ever since”. Many of the album songs deal with that beauty and importance of nature, our wounded relationship to her and the threats brought by the ecological crisis we are just waking up to. With lyrics to traditional songs often re-written or “re-imagined with new relevance for today” Sam has distilled out of these old songs “a new potency and communique, through polished up old wisdoms almost lost, now with a renewed sense of heart and orientation”.

Tracklist:
01. The Garden of England (Seeds of Love) (4:17)
02. Lay This Body Down (4:48)
03. The Moon Shines Bright (4:14)
04. Soul Cake (6:00)
05. Spencer the Rover (4:52)
06. Jasper Sea (5:57)
07. Sweet Sixteen (3:11)
08. Turtle Dove (4:59)
09. Worthy Wood (4:12)
10. Balfanen (5:24)