Defined by a distinctive finger-picking style inspired by life-long hero Bert Jansch, and a vocal that’s sometimes low and dark, sometimes rich and warm, the debut album from Glasgow-raised singer/songwriter Sam Grassie, Where Two Hawks Fly - out now via Broadside Hacks Recordings - bar one original composition, compiles traditional songs with an eye on his Scottish roots, albeit with totally new guitar arrangements devised by Grassie himself.

Everything comes from Scotland, is about Scotland, or is a song Grassie associates with Scotland. There’s Irish tunes too - like stormy murder ballad ‘Put The Blood’ - but Sam first came across them  growing up in Scotland, and besides, his mother’s family is from Donegal. It's also material, Grassie continues, “that has a place in this time, that has a modern relevance.” Even today, Grassie sometimes wrestles with a nostalgia for his youth in the Scottish countryside, “with wanting to be back in nature and my dad’s cabin,” but then again, he says, life at the heart of London’s resurgent folk scene is good. “I feel at home wherever I feel at home musically,” he says, “and there’s loads of people here who I really respect. There’s a flow of people coming, playing and staying, the standard’s really high.” 
And after time spent in Glasgow, and a period battling life-threatening injury, debilitating illness and personal tragedy, since permanently relocating to London in 2022 and immersing himself in said ‘folk scene’, his gigging across the UK and Europe has been extensive. He’s has toured with Ryler Walker, joined bills with folk legends Martin Carthy, Jacqui McShee and the late Wizz Jones, (and with contemporaries Jim Ghedi and Gwennifer Raymond), performed alongside Robert Plant and Bernard Butler at a Bert Jansch tribute in London, even forming his own travelling folk club Les Caravanes whose regular members include Daisy Rickman and members of Shovel Dance Collective.