Since Sam Carter released his debut album ‘Keepsakes’ in 2009, there has been a mounting excitement about this songwriter, guitarist and singer. 

In the three years since the release of his debut album, ‘Keepsakes’, Sam Carter has already over-achieved: Emerging Artist In Residence at The Southbank Centre in London, supported Bellowhead on a UK tour, performed in the Middle East and UK with the British Council’s ‘Shifting Sands’ project, played to thousands as part of the all-star line-up for the tour ‘The Lady: A Homage To Sandy Denny’, performed on major venue and festival stages in his own right and walked away with Horizon Award for best newcomer at the 2010 BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards. And his arrival hasn’t gone unnoticed by some of the finest singer-songwriters and guitarists in the world today - he has performed alongside all of the following: Nic Jones, Martin Carthy, Richard Thompson, Chris Wood and Martin Simpson. 

So after three years of waiting, it’s no surprise in the great anticipation about what Sam Carter would deliver next. 

‘The No Testament‘ sees Sam reinvent his contemporary narrative-based songwriting by infusing it with shapenote, gospel and work song influences. This ambitious album ranges from intimate solo performances through driving acapella chants to full-throttle electric blues.

Opening with the raw and gutsy sound of the Neasden Sacred Harp Singers performing the shapenote hymn ‘Antioch’, their voices fall away as the traditional tune is taken up by Sam and reinvented as ‘Dreams Are Made Of Money’, a contemporary take on a recession-hit modern world that feels like a song we’ve always known, lodged somewhere in our collective consciousness.

Elsewhere in ‘The One’ Sam assumes the voice of a bitter divorcee in conversation with his son, the song hitting its zenith as the father declares ‘make sure the vow you take is not making one to break’ in what feels like the final stanza of a modern-day parable. The biblical feel runs on as ‘Waves & Tremors’ depicts a recent natural disaster with the apocalyptic horror of Revelation, its narrator facing the aftermath of the Japanese earthquake and tsunami. 

The No Testament is a search for the things that matter to us in the 21st century, made by an artist who is marking himself out as a songwriter of note, as well as a guitarist and singer to stand alongside the best of his generation.

‘I have a feeling, and I’m not alone, that Sam Carter is going to be huge.’ 
- Irish World

‘The work of a great songwriter in the making’ - Guitar & Bass

‘His songs look set to stand the test of time and to be covered by others in turn’ - R2

‘A talent developing quickly.’ - Mojo