Serious Sam Barrett is a hard touring, folk and country singer/songwriter from Otley, West Yorkshire. Playing honest, heartfelt self penned and traditional songs on 12 string guitar and banjo.

Raised in the Dales village of Addingham, Sam began performing in and around Leeds in 2004, with word spreading further afield with the release of his 2009 debut album Close To Home. Performing at SXSW in Austin, Texas in 2010, he has toured the US widely, usually in the company of friends and fellow skaters The Pine Hill Haints. Along the way, Sam has shared stages with the likes of Martin Carthy, Dave Burland, Katherine Tickell, Lucero, The Young Un's, Frank Fairfield, Deer Tick and Karine Polwart, and received airplay and praise plaudits from the BBC’s Bob Harris, Marc Riley and Mark Radcliffe as well as Mike Harding.



David’s playing is seeped in the tradition of American folk and blues guitar, from the rags of Blind Blake and Reverend Gary Davis, to the delta blues of Robert Johnson and Charley Patton. He is also an accomplished harmonica player in the country blues tradition of Sonny Boy Williamson I and Sonny Terry.

His involvement with the Lindy Hop scene nudged him in the direction of early jazz and swing, but the standards Louis Armstrong may have sung still posses a rural quality. He cut his teeth playing in country and folk bands and will still play the odd bluegrass number if the feeling takes him.

His reworking of traditional songs breathes new life into well worn standards and his original compositions the give a nod to the rootsy side of Bob Dylan, Leonard Cohen and Townes Van Zandt.