Seth Lakeman
Make Your Mark Honour Oak Records
Multi-instrumental folky delivers powerful new material
“The pandemic gave me a real determination to come out musically stronger and I really dug deep into myself for this album,” says Seth of Make Your Mark. “Being able to record and play with the band again was really quite spiritual.” It seems that the recent period of enforced hibernation had a surprisingly positive effect for many artists. And, in Seth’s case, he used the 18 months to write what is possibly one of his most powerful releases to date. Recorded in Devon as restrictions eased, Seth surrounded himself with top-class folk musicians, including Bellowhead’s Benji Kirkpatrick, Ben Nicholls and Alex Hart, for 14 songs covering diverse topics, such as the environment, love, death and self-belief. Guitars, fiddles, bouzouki, banjo and mandolin come together, creating a dramatic backdrop for Seth’s vocals, which are particularly effective on tracks such as Coming For You Soon, The Lark and Love Will Still Remain. Wonderful stuff.
Standout track: Love Will Still Remain For fans of: Eliza Carthy, Kate Rusby