Serious Sam Barrett

An accomplished skateboarder who founded a punk-style D.I.Y. label to document his local folk scene, "Serious" Sam Barrett combined American Delta blues and country with English traditional music in a direct, heartfelt fashion. Born and raised in the tiny village of Addingham in the Yorkshire Dales, Barrett was son to a folksinger father and a mother who loved Dylan, Guthrie, and Lead Belly. He became enamored of his parents' record collection while young and learned to play the guitar at an early age. While in his teens, he took up skateboarding, where he earned his nickname, and got into punk rock, from which he developed an admiration for the D.I.Y. ethic. Initially playing All-American-influenced country and blues, he gradually incorporated more Yorkshire folk influences. Performing a mixture of traditional and self-penned material "mainly about heartbreak," Barrett developed a twangy, rootsy fingerpicked style making extensive use of 12-string guitar, while his nasal delivery recalled his childhood heroes. As a young man he moved to nearby Leeds, where, with a number of friends, he formed the D.I.Y. collective YaDig? to release music by the best folk and roots artists in Leeds and West Yorkshire. He toured extensively, traveling as far afield as Nashville and Austin's SXSW festival. His eponymous debut album dropped in 2012, and the follow-up, North Country Steed -- a collaboration with James the Fang -- in 2014; both were released in the U.S. by Arkam.