Lindsay Clark weaves together the threads of traditional English folk, country, and a personal take on experimental folk that feels both timeless and intimate. Her music unfolds like a quiet revelation – anchored by her multi-layered vocal harmonies. Drawing inspiration from an eclectic mix – The Beach Boys, Elizabeth Cotten, Joni Mitchell, Appalachian folk, and the classical records she grew up with – Clark creates a sound that’s warmly familiar yet unmistakably her own. Her self-taught fingerpicking, shaped by artists like Nick Drake and John Fahey, adds another layer of depth to her work.

For The Influences, she played covers of traditional song Wild Mountain Thyme and Tia Blake’s My Father Is A Lonely Man and her own I Lay, at the Volkshotel in Amsterdam.

‘The style is always different, but the longing is still there.’

Lindsay Clark: “Wild Mountain Thyme is a song I’ve heard over many years but was never something I performed. When I landed in London for the beginning of my tour, it popped into my mind and I started to explore it in spare moments between shows. What I love about the song is how much it still seems to strike people, the melody and the pastoral longing that it captures. I love how traditional songs evolve, even if they have a particular author they exist in a lineage that is still being shaped by the people who are playing it.”

“The version I first heard was Bert Jansch, which is of course completely unique to him – and later the version by Fotheringay (Sandy Denny). I love how slow and soft her version is, her voice evokes so much emotion from pretty much anything she sings. I also love that whatever version you hear, the lyrics are always slightly different, it feels more like a poem or spoken word in that way. And the style is always different, but the longing is still there.”

‘There was this whole world I hadn’t even discovered.’

After Nick Drake, Bert Jansch was really Lindsay Clark’s first introduction to British folk and she completely fell in love with open tunings. “That was before I realized there was this whole world I hadn’t even discovered and it was when I started to really develop more deeply into my own style of playing. People at shows here and there often asked me if I listened to these particular artists, most of whom I’d never heard of  — but in the end it feels like something that’s in my lineage or in my blood.”

“Of course there is a lot of crossover into Appalachian and American folk music and plenty of artists I love who build on those traditions and reinvent them. I suppose it’s important to note that none of these styles were really invented in any particular place, I don’t think, but perhaps just from human consciousness, place and nature. Laura Marling and Yasmin Williams come to mind as artists who are really building on those traditions and innovating. I suppose that’s what I hope to do as well rather than just imitating. But I’ve also always been drawn to the purity of more traditional folk, it’s very simple and direct and sometimes that’s all you need.”

‘This song is so deep and raw, but also very pretty melodically.’

“My Father is a Lonely Man is on a Tia Blake record that I borrowed from a friend during the pandemic and was listening to on repeat. Some of her original songs seem so immaculate that I wondered if they were covers, but they’re not.” Lindsay Clark was immediately struck by how special her voice was. “And her style of playing is really unique rhythmically, in a way that I couldn’t quite replicate and wanted to adapt the song to my own version. She isn’t that well known except perhaps by people who are really deep into folk or British folk in particular.”

“This song is so deep and raw, but also very pretty melodically. I always love that juxtaposition and I couldn’t help but wonder about her story behind it. And I relate to it personally in struggles I’ve had with my own father, so it’s a deep cut in that way. I tried to brush up on my own version while staying in Utrecht in the days before our session – I added a few different chords and flourishes that, I hope, helped to make it a bit more mine.” 

Photos

Keep watching

Thank you for watching and enjoying this session. You’ll probably like some other sessions from The Influences’ archive too, like these earlier ones we filmed with Alela Diane and Blitzen Trapper.