BUCK CURRAN & SERIOUS SAM BARRETT

Event information

BUCK CURRAN is an American singer-songwriter-guitarist, record producer, painter and guitar maker. Curran's acoustic and electric guitar playing is characterized by the extensive use of low alternate tunings, slide, and his use of the EBow. The EBow is an electronic device used for playing electric guitar; it uses a magnetic feedback circuit to vibrate strings without touching them, allowing players to sustain notes indefinitely. Curran's music is associated with the Psychedelic Folk and Indie Folk genres, though his musical origins stem from performing traditional and original Blues and Folk in the 1990s.

A noted guitar maker, Buck worked from 2002 to 2009 with renowned Maine, USA luthier Dana Bourgeois, where he developed his own guitar model called Butterfly. Acoustic Guitar Magazine featured one of Curran's 2006 Butterfly guitars in their 'Great Acoustics' March 2012 issue. In 2017 Acoustic Guitar Magazine featured Curran's acoustic guitar instrumental 'River Unto Sea' in their June issue, followed by Curran's acoustic guitar instrumental 'Song for Liam' in March/April 2019. In 2022 the Bert Jansch Foundation asked Buck to participate in 'For Bert Jansch: Around the World in 80 Plays', a special project featuring performance videos of various musicians playing special 'Bert Jansch' Yamaha guitars. Buck Curran's video was filmed in historic Città Alta in Bergamo, Italy.

[Buck Curran performs] a trance-folk that, at every turn in the slipstream, seems to hail from another country: the murder ballads of Appalachia; the plucked-string stasis and Om drone of New York minimalism; the iridescent-Middle East imagination of the Incredible String Band - Rolling Stone

Curran is able to turn a well-known folk standard into a journey through a beautiful, treacherous landscape. His talent is an alchemical one - KLOF

No Love Is Sorrow is a beautiful piece of work….Curran sings with the gravelly decorum of Mark Lanegan. - UNCUT


SERIOUS SAM BARRETT is a singer/songwriter from Otley who has released 7 critically acclaimed studio albums, two of which were collaborations with Alabama based fiddle player ‘James The Fang’. These albums have explored country, old time blues, folk and even pop influences. Raised in the Yorkshire Dales village of Addingham, Sam began performing in and around Leeds in 2004. Word spread further afield with the release of his 2009 debut album ‘Close To Home’ which led to an appearance at the 2010 South x South West Festival in Austin, Texas. Thereafter, Sam has toured the USA extensively, usually in the company of The Pine Hill Haints; a bluegrass band from Alabama, who describe their sound as ‘Alabama Ghost Music.’

Barrett has also opened for U.S alternative rock-folk band Deer Tick and appeared at the prestigious WC Handy Music Festival in Florence, Alabama. A festival that happens every year to honour Florence native WC Handy, also known as the ‘Father of the Blues.’ Closer to home, Sam has shared stages with the likes of Martin Carthy, The Young’uns, and Karine Polwart. Sam has performed at Glastonbury Festival, The Secret Garden Party, Deer Shed, Kendal Calling and through relentless touring and recording has built himself a reputation as being a fine guitar and banjo player.

‘The sustained brilliance of this playing is really something to behold.’ – Bob Harris, BBC Radio 2

‘Songs that rattle with the ghosts of Appalachian folk, and southern blues yet sound emphatically English.’ – UNCUT

‘Old before his years, [Sam Barrett is a] country-folk fellow who mixes intricate John Fahey finger-picking with confessional tales of dirty old Leeds.’ – The Guardian

‘Barrett shows his deft touch in blending English literature, folk and American sound.’ – Americana UK