Sam Shackleton - Scottish Cowboy Ballads & Early American Folk Songs (2025) [Hi-Res]

Tracklist

01. Get Along Little Dogies
02. Sweet Snowy North
03. The Jolly Cowboy
04. Chisholm Trail
05. The Blackest Crow
06. Sail Away Laddies
07. Pretty Saro
08. Old Rosin the Bow
09. Lone Star Trail
10. Roving Cowboy
11. Moonshiner
12. O Death
13. East Virginia Blues
14. I Ride an Auld Paint
15. The Butcher Boy
16. Scots Yodel

Scottish Cowboy Ballads & Early American Folk Songs is a collection of 16 songs by Edinburgh based independent folk artist, singer-songwriter, and folklorist, Sam Shackleton. It is his second self-recorded independent album, following his highly acclaimed debut album, Causeway Recordings, and his EP Scottish Folk Ballads of Freedom.

After recent viral success on multiple social media and streaming platforms, with his songs and videos achieving tens of millions of streams, such as his hit singles The Lone Prairie and Wild Bill Jones, Shackleton decided to release an album focused on traditional cowboy ballads and early American folk songs with his own unique Scottish twist. This album is inspired by his life playing and busking traditional folk music, and features some of the traditional American and Appalachian songs that laid the foundations in the development of his unique sound. Inspired by the likes of Woody Guthrie, Cisco Houston, and folklorists, John and Alan Lomax, many songs on this album also share a unique connection to Scotland, Ireland, England, and Wales, carried to the USA in the minds of the many thousands of emigrants that travelled across the Atlantic. In his own unique style, Shackleton has reshaped each song, sung in his signature Scottish brogue alongside the banjo, guitar and harmonica.

This album further draws on Shackleton’s extensive experiences touring the world performing his music across the UK, Ireland, Europe, the United States, and Canada, opening shows for the likes of the Mary Wallopers, Pokey LaFarge, Willi Carlisle, and Lukas Nelson and performing sold out shows of his own in Scotland and the United States. After a very difficult few years, losing his father to suicide, Sam was at one of the lowest points in his life, and he was also forced to cancel a large tour of the USA and take a long break from performing and touring. After several years of depression, lack of motivation, and ill-health, Shackleton began to write and record this album. In many ways, this album saved him, and he spent many days and nights pouring his heart and soul into it, featuring many of the songs he and his father used to busk together on the streets of Edinburgh. As such, this album is dedicated to his loving memory, with all of the songs being recorded on his guitar, and through his recording equipment that was passed down.

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