Sam Carter

‘Home Waters is an album full of quiet pleasures, made by a musician at the top of his game’ R2 Magazine.

Midlands-born guitarist and songwriter Sam Carter has earned a reputation for vivid, narrative-driven 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). Over the past fifteen years, Sam has toured the world, won a BBC Folk Award and made appearances on national TV, including a spellbinding performance on Later… with Jools Holland. Sam has recorded and performed with some of folk’s leading lights, including Richard Thompson, Eliza Carthy, Martin Simpson and Nancy Kerr.

When Sam Carter envisioned his fourth album Home Waters as 'a search for a sense of belonging and stability in unfamiliar territory', he couldn't have known how prescient that would turn out to be. Recorded pre-pandemic in a converted church in rural Northumberland by producer and multi-instrumentalist Ian Stephenson (Kan, Baltic Crossing, Andy May Trio), Sam’s live acoustic guitar and vocals sit at the heart of the album. Many of his performances were left unadorned, while Stephenson’s cinematic string arrangements created the rich emotional landscapes on other tracks. Released during lockdown in May 2020, Home Waters brought solace to many and was heralded as 'an album full of quiet pleasures by a musician at the top of his game' (R2 Magazine).

In autumn 2021, Sam embarked on the first leg of the long-awaited Home Waters tour, performing to enthralled audiences accompanied by the specially-assembled Home Waters String Quartet. The quartet also featured in the streamed show Home Waters in Concert, which was picked as a highlight of the month by Bandcamp’s Editorial Director J. Edward Keyes’ when it premiered on the platform as part of the tour in September 2021. This spring, Sam will complete the Home Waters tour with a selection of intimate solo dates and a re-streaming of the acclaimed Home Waters in Concert.