In 2005, Seth Lakeman was reputedly broke and stranded by the side of the road awaiting assistance after his car had broken down when he had a phone call telling him that Kitty Jay - the album he had made for £300 in his brother's kitchen - had been shortlisted for the Mercury Music Prize. From that point he didn't look back. His personable personality coupled with his driving fiddle rhythms and evocative songs built from Dartmoor's rich heritage of myths and legends quickly launched him into mainstream consciousness, dramatically raising the profile of folk music on the way; until then his career had been erratic. Raised by a family of folk musicians in Devon in the south west of England, he was a teenager when he first started performing with his siblings Sam Lakeman and Sean Lakeman as the Lakeman Brothers, who were signed to a major label and, with Kathryn Roberts and Cara Dillon (who replaced Kate Rusby), re-modelled themselves as pop-folk band Equation. They made two albums before he quit to go solo, though he struggled until his crossover breakthrough with Kitty Jay in 2005. An exciting live performer regularly headlining at both folk and rock festivals, he followed Kitty Jay with the albums Freedom Fields (2006), Poor Man's Heaven (2008) and Hearts & Minds (2010). He has continued to put out albums at a consistent rate over the years, regularly making it into the charts with offerings such as A Pilgrim's Tale (#39) and Somerset Sessions, which went to the top of the UK folk chart. A new live album came in 2024, Kitty Jay – Live from Dartmoor Prison, marking 20 years since the original album's release.
