Sea Song Sessions Live Music & Concerts

“Sea Song Sessions is a glorious album, showcasing some of the best of the current crop of British folk artists – Jon Boden, Seth Lakeman, B

Boden’s celebrated work with Bellowhead (of course no strangers to sea-faring songs) and Ben Nicholls’ band, Kings of The South Seas (who play exclusively maritime-influenced music), Seth Lakeman’s own extensive body of work from the South West as well as Emily Portman and Jack Rutter’s sizeable oceanic repertoires, all formed the natural foundation and inspiration for these acclaimed musicians to conceive the Sea Song Sessions.

They chose to record material from each artist’s repertoire, traditional songs and some newly written for these sessions. What you are hearing is a record that captures the story of an island nation whose political and social history is so undeniably tied to its relationship with the sea.

The album artwork is based on a painting, ‘Taut Ropes With Brick,’ by the artist John Henderson, who passed away in April. “I met him a couple of times at The Chelsea Arts Club on his trips up to London from his native Cornwall.” says Ben Nicholls. “I always remembered his witty, dry humour and him talking about his photo-realist paintings of maritime rope.

There was something compelling about this artist who had focused on ropes from the sea and yet made incredible paintings which expressed so much more. Sea songs are like this, a narrow subject matter but one that tells much bigger stories about the wider world. When we were looking for an album sleeve, one of his pictures was an obvious choice.”

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