Sam Kelly adds an introspective and personal touch to his robust Folk leanings, aided and abetted by his familiar gang.
Release Date: 6th June 2025
Label: Navigator Records
Format: digital / CD / LP
Note how the album pictures our hero knee deep and declares ‘Sam Kelly’. The Lost Boys, one of the hottest backing bands in folk music (folk music’s E Street Band some might say) are present very much in spirit if not name although it’s the boss (not that one) who gets the billing.
AT MY RIGHT HAND…
Chief Lost Boy, Jamie Francis, assumes the position of Sam ‘s right hand man. The gestation of Dreamers Dawn seeing the 4 trad/7 original songs being written, produced and recorded between the Kelly and Francis home studios. Probably much more sophisticated than a mic on a sofa. Indeed, what might have been spawned as a duo album – the credits show their names linked on each of the eleven tracks – quickly developed into a typically Sam Kelly collection of bombast, joy, poignant and accessible material. One that calls for support from the devils with whom he has a pact – so when you need percussion, who ya gonna call…etc.
So, arrangements of old traditional folk songs sit alongside some deeply personal and introspective originals worked up by the pair who’ve “worked together on almost everything I’ve released to date,” and clearly have a unique bond and empathy.
THE BELTERS
From a selfish perspective, there’s a tendency to focus on the belters. Those that see the full band in full flow with Graham Coe parking his camera and wielding his cello to add a depth and drama. The title track has the friendly flavour of Guiding Light, carrying an uplifting message like the conduits of the song. The trads then make their mark with the folk romp and roll at its finest in The Bold Privateer in particular and the tried and tested Gallows Pole. The latter almost solo banjo before the crew launch in and dust off their psychedelic robes.
At the back end of the album you can add The Lincolnshire Poacher with its familiar SK&TLB tropes. The flamboyant guitar chops setting up a rollicking tune with the combined delights (alongside the darkest night) of the brief squealing cello (or fiddle) and the flow into the last line of each verse. And is it these old ears or is there a Boden-esque quiver in the delivery of Dark Eyed Sailor? (Or Sam doing David Eagle doing Jon Boden…)
The crowd pleasers then take a back seat with a weighty balance towards the introspective. Eschewing the traditions of the traditional, drawing from a more personal perspective says Sam, “has produced some of our best and most honest material to date, and feels like a big step forward for us as song-writers.” The pairing of In The Cold and In The Dark (maybe an ode to his beloved fungii…or maybe not…never a truer word spoken in jest…) would be right at home in the Kate Rusby canon as would the poignant mood created in Til Sleep Comes Calling. Something possibly emerging from rubbing elbows with the great and the good.
BLUESY CHARM
The Bluesy charm and whiplash percussion of Snakes & Sermons has me recalling Robert de Niro as Max Cady in Cape Fear eulogising about his Granddaddy used to handling snakes in church while his Granny drank strychnine. Softened by what sounds like some distant pedal steel not often associated with Sam Kelly, as is the social commentary that takes us from poachers and privateers to mental health and nationalist populism.
A mature record that might mark a key point for a well established artist yet not without the infectious mood with which Sam Kelly and his Lost Boys made their mark.
Here’s The Lincolnshire Poacher – check out that cello shredding:
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