Great Silkie

Great Silkie is the songwriting vehicle of Sam Davies, fungi-folk extraordinaire and former guitarist for Charlie Boyer & The Voyeurs. The outfit formed in 2017 following a succession of stints Sam spent in London’s neo-psych and garage scenes throughout the 2010’s; accompanying the leendary Bob Lind live, recording guitar on JC Flowers’ cover of China Girl via ATP Recordings, Born in Berlin, Sam moved to Wiltshire as a child and grew up on a collage of Canterbury scene oddities Kevin Ayers and Robert Wyatt, the pastoral pop of acts like The Kinks and baroque heartland folk of Bert Jansch and Pentangle. He began visiting London at 16 and by age 17, moved to the city to join Charlie Boyer of Electricity in our Homes’ new band The Voyeurs. Following a tour with Fat White Family and amidst the beginning stages of recording a third album, Sam left to pursue his own musical path. This road is now known to us as Great Silkie. Taking their name from the traditional folksong The Great Silkie of Sule Skerry, Sam recruited Charlie Salvidge of Heavenly labelmates Toy and multi-instrumentalist Andrew Saunders to play drums and bass respectively. His percussive fingerplay finds arpeggiated patterns from flower-power chords whilst blissfully celestial vocal harmonies accompany, underpinned by the shifting rhythms of Sam’s backing band. The trio’s sound draws parallels to the lysergic trance and prismatic space of Syd Barrett’s solo work.