Ballads and Songs, Sam Carter Sings Nic Jones – Celtic Connections – City Halls Recital Rooms – January 20, 2026
Written by celtic music radio on January 22, 2026
I’ve only recently discovered the music of SAM CARTER. His latest EP, The Oakham Poacher, was sent to me and I’ve been playing it on my show, FOLKnSTUFF.
Then I saw he was at Celtic Connections and contacted him to perform at Celtic Music Radio’s Live Broadcast from the Glasgow Royal Concert Hall. As he was launching his show on the music of Nic Jones, that night, I thought I’d captured a ticket. I was not disappointed.
The show structure was simple with superb sound from the talented Carla Feuerstein. Sam performed many of Nic’s songs, interspersed with a narrative of how he discovered the music, subsequently saw Nic at Sidmouth Festival and then put this project together.
Sam is of an age where he would never have heard of Nic Jones, whose career ended because of a tragic car accident in 1982. His first encounter was at an Open Mic session in the Red Lion, Stoke Newington. He was into the music of John Martyn and Nick Drake at the time. But that night he saw a guitarist who had a very unusual style and when Sam asked him about it, was told to listen to Nic Jones, Martin Carthy and a host of others. The following week the guy turned up with some of Nic’s albums copied onto a CD. And that was him hooked.
He then sung his first song of the night Master Kilby, recorded for the long unavailable album from the Devil to A Stranger, recorded and produced by Bill Leader and issued by Highway Records. Then he recalled Nic at Sidmouth Festival in 2010, 28 years after his accident, when he came onstage to huge applause, with members of his old band Bandogs. He sang three songs accompanied by his son Joe.
Sam subsequently got in touch with the Jones family, and Nic’s daughter Helen told him they’d love for him to produce the show. Then he asked for their favourite Nic songs and that’s what he sang next. Starting with Helen’s Favourite, Ten Thousand Miles, first issued on The Noah’s Arc Trap, on Trailer Records, recorded and produced by Bill Leader.
Next one was a version of the Drowned Lover, which Nic had recorded on Penguin Eggs but also on a live version recorded by John Peel. Sam chose to sing the Peel version. Then from Penguin Eggs, Courting is a Pleasure, which belongs to the same ‘forsaken lover’ family as, Loving Hannah which is more prevalent in Scotland.
Sam had sung one of Nic’s songs, Ruins By The Shore, in front of him at Sidmouth and when he interviewed him for Bright Young Folk in 2012, he asked him where he had got the idea. The reply was Planet of the Apes. That song is on In Search Of Nic Jones, a 1998 anthology of live recordings from 1979-82. To take us up to the break Sam concluded with Seven Yellow Gypsies which also appeared on the Anthology.
The second half started with a great rendition of Annan Water, from Nic’s first Album, the 1970 Trailer release of Ballad and Songs. I still have my original copy. Then he sang Billy Don’t You Weep for Me, from a broadside printed in the early 19th century and on From The Devil To A Stranger.
Back to Penguin Eggs and a contemporary song written by Paul Metzers, Farewell to the Gold, which resulted in some great chorus singing from the audience.
Another Jones family favourite next, Helen told Sam that her late Mum would appreciate Rue the Day Ever I married. Sam sung two more, The Humpbacked Whale, written by Glaswegian Harry Robertson and included in Penguin Eggs, then Canedee-i-o from the same album.
Of course, he came back for an encore and would have been in very deep trouble if he had sung anything other than the little Pot Stove, a perfect end to a perfect evening.
HUGH TAYLOR
