The Lakeman Brothers

Seth Lakeman grew up with his two brothers, Sean Lakeman and Sam Lakeman, in the village of Buckland Monachorum in West Devon, England. He began playing music with his parents and brothers at an early age.^[1]

As The Lakeman Brothers, the three brothers released their debut album Three Piece Suite in 1994. Later that same year they were invited by two Yorkshire based singers Kathryn Roberts and Kate Rusby to join them as a backing group on a tour of Portugal. After the tour the five musicians became a permanent group and called themselves Equation.^[2] The group were signed in a record deal with Time Warner in 1995. After three full albums (Return to Me in 1996, Hazy Daze in 1998, and The Lucky Few in 2000), and tours in the UK, Europe and the United States, Lakeman left Equation in 2001. He joined his brother Sam and Sam's wife Cara Dillon and appeared on Dillon's eponymous debut album, which featured Lakeman on fiddle, guitar and vocals.^[3] The album won two awards at the 2002 BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards.^[4]

Solo work

In 2002 Lakeman released his first solo album, The Punch Bowl, produced by elder brother Sean Lakeman which received wide critical acclaim including a review in fRoots magazine which said: "The songs don't just glide smoothly by.....they get their claws into you".^{[citation needed]}

Kitty Jay, Lakeman's second solo album was released in 2004. This was also produced by brother Sean Lakeman in his kitchen. The title track of the album tells the story of Jay's Grave, a well known location on Dartmoor. The album was recorded for a cost of less than £300.^[5] Kitty Jay reached silver status in the UK. That same year he collaborated with Devon singer-songwriter Steve Knightley and young local singer Jenna Witts on the album Western Approaches.

A UK tour in Autumn 2005 followed his Mercury Music Prize nomination, after which Lakeman and his band (regularly brother Sean Lakeman (guitar), Ben Nichols (bass), Andy Tween (drums)), toured extensively with folk-rock band The Levellers, who took to closing their set with a "fiddle off" between Lakeman and Levellers' fiddler Jonathan Sevink.^{[citation needed]} Other support tours with Billy Bragg and Jools Holland brought Lakeman's music to a wider audience.

In March 2006 Lakeman began a UK tour to promote his new album Freedom Fields which was released on iScream. Produced again by Sean Lakeman, he signed to a new major record label, Relentless Records, promptly releasing a new single "Lady of the Sea" in early August 2006. This record went gold making it one of the biggest selling traditionally based folk records ever in the UK.^{[citation needed]}

His fourth solo album, Poor Man's Heaven, was released on 30 June 2008 with an accompanying tour. It introduced a rockier edge to the folk of the previous albums. It was also the last album to be produced by Sean Lakeman and it was awarded silver levels of sales in the UK.

Lakeman's fifth album, Hearts & Minds, was released on 19 July 2010. Produced by studio veteran Tchad Blake^[6] Lakeman released his sixth album called Tales from the Barrel House on 18 November 2011. In 2014 the Word Of Mouth album was released.^[7]

In 2018 Lakeman released another album, The Well Worn Path' and 11th studio album 'Make Your Mark' in November 2021. The title track Make Your Mark was playlisted at BBC Radio 2.^{[citation needed]}

‘Sea Song Sessions’ is a collection of British maritime folk songs and sea shanties, performed Jon Boden, Seth Lakeman, Ben Nicholls, Emily Portman & Jack Rutter. The artists celebrated the release of the album of the same name in September 2022 with a run of on-board and harbourside performances which they sailed to and from by ship.

Seth recorded on Van Morrison’s album ‘Moving On Skiffle’ in 2022 and he collaborated with Public Service Broadcasting and performed with them at the Royal Albert Hall. Seth has previously worked and toured extensively with Robert Plant (Led Zeppelin) with his band the Sensational Space Shifters.^{[citation needed]}

After a limited vinyl pressing for Record Store Day 2023, ‘The Somerset Sessions’ was given a wider release on Seth’s own Honour Oak Records in July 2023. The album features original, unreleased session recordings from Seth featuring Ethan Johns, Jeremy Stacey, John Smith, Nick Pini and Alex Hart that were recorded at the Bert Jansch Studio in Frome.^{[citation needed]}

2024 marks the 20th anniversary of Kitty Jay and following the 20th Anniversary tour in February there will be a standing tour in October with the band including long-time collaborators Benji Kirkpatrick, Ben Nicholls, Cormac Byrne and Alex Hart. The February Kitty Jay Tour opened with a sold out concert at Exeter's Corn Exchange on 20 February 2024. Seth's father Geoff made a guest appearance on spoons.^{[citation needed]}

Singles

Albums

With the Full English

• The Full English is a folk music digital archive project. Lakeman joined Fay Heild, Martin Simpson and others to create a Full English group to record folk songs for the archive, followed by a national tour. (Topic, 7 October 2013)