Over his fifteen-year career, Midlands-born guitarist and songwriter Sam Carter has earned a reputation for vivid, heartfelt songwriting and captivating live performances.
‘Sam Carter is a brilliant guitarist and songwriter who combines the observational with social comment and personal reflection’ Songlines
‘A singer who can hold the audience spellbound all by himself’ R2
‘Really wonderful’ Jools Holland
Over his fifteen-year career, Midlands-born guitarist and songwriter Sam Carter has earned a reputation for vivid, heartfelt songwriting and captivating live performances. He is a highly regarded instrumentalist, renowned by many as “the finest English-style fingerpicking guitarist of his generation” (Jon Boden). Sam has appeared on national TV, including Later… with Jools Holland, won a BBC Folk Award, and toured the world, sharing stages with folk’s leading lights, including Richard Thompson, Eliza Carthy, Martin Simpson, and Bella Hardy.
Carter released his last studio album, the acclaimed Home Waters (2020), during the pandemic. After touring extensively once the world opened up, he felt called away from the chamber folk of Home Waters. “My writing and listening shifted, probably due to the isolation”, explains Sam. “Storytelling gave way to something more impressionistic and abstract. I found hope and solace in escapism.” During the summer of 2022, he allowed his writing to be infused with his love for the ethereal textures of slowcore and dream pop bands such as Low and Cocteau Twins, and his fifth album, Silver Horizon, began to take shape.
This autumn, Sam Carter returns with a tour in support of Silver Horizon. Recorded by renowned producer Andy Bell at the remote Red Kite Studios in Wales, Silver Horizon features 11 hook-driven indie folk songs set in a captivating, dream-like sound world. Guitarist Stuart McCallum (The Breath) weaves epic reverb-drenched soundscapes around many songs, which are simultaneously otherworldly and deeply personal. “I’m still dealing with themes of love, loss, and change that have been a part of my earlier work, but at the moment, sketching events in an impressionistic way instead of documenting them in detail gives the songs more room to breathe.” It’s this seamless blend of the intimate and ethereal that makes Silver Horizon the most remarkable album of Carter’s career.