‘Freedom Fields’ Seth Lakeman album launch

The freezing winding roads on the way through the barren wastes of Dartmoor delay our arrival at the recently extended building of Princetown Brewery, and we miss 2005 Mercury Music Award nomination Seth’s first song and interview for ITV Westcountry news. It’s undeniably cold in the newly built extension to Princetown’s Brewery and Seth tells us the heaters packed up about 4 hours ago. The Brewery are also launching their real ales - Jail Ale and Kernow Ale to a wider audience jointly with Seth’s album launch of ‘Freedom Fields’.

Freedom Fields is an area of Plymouth where one of the most important battles in the Civil War was fought. The skirmish took place on 3rd December 1643, where after vicious fighting the Roundhead Garrison of Plymouth made their final rally, routed the King’s army (the Cavaliers) and this uprising changed the course of English history. It was this event that inspired Seth to write the title track of the album and is also the time period for other local Westcountry based tracks.

The Dartmoor singer-songwriter seems quite at home in these freezing climes, but me I’m frozen and so formulate a plan to imbibe as much ale as possible until I feel warm. The cameras roll again this time for BBC Spotlight Local News to interview Seth about the new record and the forthcoming tour of ... Libya?! Before the band break into ‘Take No Rogues’. It’s my introduction to the album and sounds terrific.

The band Seth has with him today are the huge Ben Nicholls on Double Bass making the instrument look quite small beside his large frame, Seth’s brother Sean on guitar and Cormac Byrne on bodhran and one foot holding time on a tambourine taped to the floor creating a mesmerising rhythm.



The music keeps me moving in the cold and we’re warmly welcomed as the cameras pack up and local boy Seth treats us to a collection of both new tunes and old ones from his previous album Kitty Jay which he launched in the nearby prison. The music is lively and brimming with vitality and warms me far more than the ale does. Seth sings of ‘Fool’s Paradise’ and I think of the freely flowing ale and have to agree with him as my head starts to spin on the local brew.

Seth starts off playing the diminutive Tenor Guitar and he struggles to tune the four strings in the cold and later Ben swaps to the banjo. ‘Lady of The Sea’ is another new tune from the album and Seth’s a powerful force singing live and that’s before he swaps to the fiddle for some virtuoso playing. I’m a little stumped for words to describe him – the sound is so full of intense life and vitality and combined with his voice even with no one else accompanying him he’s a real force on stage. The tunes like ‘King and Country’ and ‘Setting of The Sun’ have a timeless quality to them and make a connection with something natural and simple within us like the moors themselves.



The new album concentrates less on myths and legends and more on historic tales of war, conflict, love and loss. The tunes are well crafted visual stories of wintry moors, love and a soldiers’ fate, Devon’s Naval life, the solitude of the sea, hunting on the moors, witches, wills written in blood, white hares dancing, oppression of the tin and copper miners, the loss of war, desertion, battles and riflemen and more.

All told on a canvas of simple instruments played at their best and a host of guest singers including Cara Dillon. The music itself is also carefully arranged with intoxicating rhythms and a wonderful vocal delivery, and feels more lively when you listen to it than many of the new breed of male solo acoustic artists, having not only a haunting feel at times but also an internal energy which sets it apart from his ‘slower’ contemporaries. Have you guessed I’m a converted fan of Seth’s nu-folk?

The album’s 12 songs are a worthy addition to your record collection especially as it contains other goodies with it on a bonus disc containing recordings of Seth live, videos and even a tour diary! It’s one of those albums, worth taking the time to listen to the stories rather than one for a party. It’s poetry to music and reminiscent of Jethro Tull’s Broadsword and the Beast.



Live tho Seth likes to spice the music up and brings each tune to life and gives you an urge to dance. If you see Seth billed at any of the festivals you may be attending this summer, he’s doing many of them, then see him, as he’s breathing new life into folk music and it wells up inside him and spreads out over those who watch him and you have to dance.

As for the beer welling up any heat in me – it doesn’t work and perhaps I should have drunk the weaker of the two ales! I’ve come under prepared for such a bitterly cold night so with the furious fiddle of Seth’s last song still ringing in my ears, I brave the snow and the country lanes back to the warmth of home.

FUTURE GIGS