The Middlebury Community Music Center is delighted to welcome Sam Sweeney, a once-in-a-generation fiddling talent, to the MCMC community for a free Zoom question and answer session and musical demonstration on Sunday, April 7 at 11:00 AM EST. The event is free, but registration is required and spots are limited.

Sam has been called "one of the defining English fiddle players of his generation" (Mark Radcliffe, BBC Radio 2), "Britain's Premiere fiddler" (Songlines), and "the fiddler with the Midas touch… an English equivalent of the great Irish fiddle player Martin Hayes" (The Guardian). He is a founder and member of the ground-breaking trio Leveret and a veteran of the mighty Bellowhead, in addition to his highly acclaimed solo work. Nominated four times for, and in 2015 winner of, Musician Of The Year at the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards, Sam has been at the forefront of the revival in English music for the last fifteen years. He is also a passionate and experienced educator, and served as inaugural Artistic Director of the National Youth Folk Ensemble.

Sam's most recent genre-defying new solo album "Escape That," is his first entirely self-composed record. It ties together all of Sam's musical passions; an honest and fearless expression of himself, combining pop hooks and aesthetics with his pioneering work in the world of traditional dance tunes. As Sam describes, "Escape That is the most 'me' music I can imagine making. It ties together my love for traditional dance tunes with my obsession with pop music hooks and textures. Every piece of music we have ever heard leaves a footprint in our minds. With this record I am actively retreading some of these footprints, visiting old musical companions and combining them with my love for traditional dance music. This is emotional music for me and an honest acknowledgment of all the music I have loved since I was a kid. It's not trying to be anything. It's as close as I've ever got to sharing the sound of the inside of my head." Needless to say, our conversation with Sam is not one to be missed!

This event is the sixth installment of the Middlebury Community Music Center's "Trad Talk: Music and Conversation at Home and Abroad." Past guests have included Brittany Haas, Dreamers' Circus, Lena Jonsson, Hartwin and Ward Dhoore and Stundom. To learn more about this series, please visit Middlebury Community Music Center's Trad talk series webpage at https://www.mcmcvt.org/trad-talk.

May 5, 2024, 6:30 to 11 PM

May 7, 2024, 5:30 to 7 PM

May 8, 2024, 8 to 9 AM