Serious Sam Barrett - Close to Home

Close to Home is the best British roots record I’ve heard in a long long time. It’s a glorious recreation of the classic ragged country blues and bluegrass sounds from across the water but at the same time, it’s firmly British. Sam’s from Yorkshire, he’s proud of it and he’s steeped this record in the county that he loves.

It’s heartfelt and it’s raw. It’s not killed by over production and sounds like the kind of awesome contemporary roots music coming out of Jas Mathus’ Delta Recording Service.

Sam bashes classic tune after classic tune on Stella his 12 string resonator, with passion and care. The original songs sit comfortably side by side with the covers. There’s no lazy singer-songwriting or hiding behind ‘alt’ folk tags.

The vocals are whisky rough perfect and the lyrics are sharp. On Lonely Night at JoJos Sam captures the despair of being smack in the middle of a fakester scene: "trendy braces, worn out faces, trying so hard to look cool, you remind me of the kids that didn’t ride skateboards, still used to carry their skateboards to school… you didn’t give a damn about music, just wanted to tell me about who you know"

If you have any kind of interest in acoustic tunes or bands with a country tinge, then you should buy this record. It’ll help you understand why the Observer Monthly shiny faux folk crowd are a big pile of shit. You’ll never listen to Newton Faulkner again.

Go to the launch of Close to Home! It’s in Leeds on 13 August. More details here!

Go to Sam’s Myspace site