Sam Lakeman

Samuel Lakeman (born 6 November 1975) is an English musician, songwriter, and producer and co-owner of Charcoal Records.

Sam Lakeman was brought up in the village of Buckland Monachorum, near Yelverton, Devon, United Kingdom, with his brothers, fellow musicians Seth Lakeman and Sean Lakeman. He currently lives in Frome, Somerset, UK, with his wife, the award winning Irish singer Cara Dillon, and their three children.

Sam began playing music with his parents and two brothers Seth and Sean at an early age.

As a family band they started playing at festivals, and small concerts. Lakeman and his siblings formed The Lakeman Brothers in the early 1990s – with Sam on piano/keyboards, Seth Lakeman on fiddle, and Sean Lakeman on guitar. The brothers toured throughout the UK and Europe during weekends and school holidays, performing at festivals and venues winning critical acclaim for their musical abilities, compositions and fresh arrangements of traditional tunes. The trio wrote and produced the album 'Three Piece Suite' (1994).

In the late part of 1994 they were invited by two Yorkshire based singers Kathryn Roberts and Kate Rusby to join them as a backing group on a tour of Portugal. After the tour the five musicians became a permanent group and called themselves Equation.

Shortly after Cara Dillon replaced Kate Rusby in the summer of 1995, the group signed a major record deal with Blanco y Negro (part of Warner Music Group) and recorded an album at Peter Gabriel's Realworld Studios in winter 1995–'96. The album, entitled Return to Me, was produced by David Bottrill. There was a single release, "He Loves Me", with an accompanying promotional video. The band performed on MTV and VH1, but weeks before the release of the album the record label shelved it. It was not released in 1996, but in 2003 it saw a release under Rough Trade after Geoff Travis (the band's A+R) bought its rights.

...
Wikipedia