Sams debut album Stepping Stone is availible from this website for £10 + p&p
Email info@samdunkley.co.uk for details

STEPPING STONE  Sam Dunkley (Own Label SDCD. 001)
The self-deprecatory tag 'Never heard of him' is etched on Sam's publicity handout  but I'm sure you will soon! So far, during the past five years, he s performed support sets for and received prominent endorsements from  Harvey Andrews, Steve Tilston and Ric Sanders. He s  a Birmingham lad exiled in Yorkshire  (Huddersfield), but I ve seen him at singarounds all over, from Otley to Alcester, and wherever he performs he makes a big impression, notably with the dynamic quality of his singing. Not only does he have a superb vocal command (he s classically trained  but don t hold that against him!), but you can also tell at once that he really thinks about what he s singing about in order to reach the heart of the song (and I m with him all the way on that one!); he makes  a real connection with his audience so that they actually listen to the songs, rather than just hearing them . He s tried to carefully nurture  a style and repertoire that can appeal to traditional folkies whilst interesting a whole new generation  (a mission statement that has a whiff of the Jim Moray about it, and thus may be viewed with suspicion by traditionalists, though it shouldn t cause concern since Sam s individual treatments are nowhere near as controversial or radical). And to a large extent, I can buy into his thesis that the pop songs of today are the folk songs of tomorrow. But I must be honest: although Sam s singing (and self-accompaniment on guitar) wins folks over big-time in the live environment due to his careful reading both of the situation and the tastes of the audience, what on the evidence of this debut CD alone may alienate Sam from the folkier audiences at any rate is his fearless choice of material. Stepping Stone contains only three traditional songs (these are given neatly inventive settings as it turns out, if not exactly in the  frighten the horses  category), the remainder being a mixture of his own compositions (two, and these much in the acoustic-pop mould) and firmly contemporary (Loudon Wainwright, Lindisfarne, Leonard Cohen, Graham Browning), even venturing a waltz-time arrangement of a message-song by rap artist Pink! Brian Bedford s Wings is given a powerful unaccompanied rendition (among the best you ll ever hear), and Sam also turns in a persuasive version of Dougie Maclean s Caledonia. Boosting his own guitar, keyboard and percussion Sam gets some further limited but effective instrumental support from a string trio, extra keyboard and voices. But while appreciating the thoughtful nature of Sam s interpretations generally, the cultured, cultivated nature of his performances inevitably brings a concomitant lessening of the quality of spontaneity which many lovers of folk music cherish. It s hard to escape the occasional notion that while Sam s utterly genuine in his artistic response to a wide range of material he may be unconsciously trying to be all things to all audiences and sometimes not entirely convincing even though the stylishness of his vocal accomplishment gives his repertoire as a whole a worthy, intrinsic unity.
Review from David Kidman - Folk Roundabout