Biography
Sam Sweeney, born in Nottingham in 1989, began playing the violin aged six, and soon picked up an enthusiasm for folk music.
Sam has performed with many groups. Whilst at school, he spent two years as a first violinist in the Nottingham Youth Orchestra. At the age of thirteen he performed, for two years, with FolkESTRA North, a group brought together by Kathryn Tickell and Folkworks.
Since 2002 Sam has been at the forefront of Midlands based folk band Kerfuffle, playing fiddle, viola, cajon and singing. In 2008 Sam joined eleven piece folk big band Bellowhead on fiddle and Bagpipes. More recently Sam has joined forces with Hannah James as part of a duo, and their first album ‘Catches and Glees’ will be out this summer.
Sam is also recording and gigging with Fay Hield on fiddle, viola and nyckelharpa as well as being the drummer and fiddle player in Jon Boden’s band for his latest album ‘Songs From The Floodplain’.
In 2006 Sam became a recipient of a BBC Performing Arts Fund bursary - a substantial financial award that will assist his further musical development. In September 2007, Sam went to study Folk & Traditional Music at Newcastle University, but left the course prematurely to play and teach music full time.
Sam is a multi-instrumentalist whose collection of instruments expands all the time: recent acquisitions include a set of English Border bagpipes, a viola, a mandola and a concertina. He also plays drum kit, cajon and nyckelharpa.
