Lawrence Dean SAM IF

Lawrence Dean wrote his first filk song in 1980. His lyrics have appeared in anthologies, convention songbooks, fanzines, and in his own songbook. He has written over 140 songs, about half of which are filk or filk related. The rest are a mix of folk, country and contemporary. His music has been performed and recorded by professional folksingers and fellow filkers around the world.

Lawrence helped create the Flying Filk Fund to bring North American guests to British Filkcons. He was UK Guest of Honour at XIlophone, Featured Filk Guest at Confluence 2006 in Pittsburgh, and Interfilk Guest at Conflikt 2 in Seattle. At Confluence, he met the love of his life, Deborah. They have been happily married for 15 years, in spite of the fact that she has parodied two of his songs.

While 2020 turned us into a planet of homebodies, lockdown did have an upside: Virtual filk circles. Lawrence embraced the opportunity to connect with filk friends old and new, often staying up until the wee hours, or waking in the middle of the night to attend. The words to his song "Filk Zoom Party" are essentially autobiographical, though no neighbours have actually banged on his door. Yet.

Lawrence has won three UK Sam awards and last year was amazed to win the 2021 Pegasus Awards for Best Writer/Composer and for Best Filk Song ("Second-Hand Heaven").

His album, Labyrinth of Shadows, is available on Bandcamp.

www.lawrencedean.com
www.lawrencedean.co.uk
mikewhitaker1379.bandcamp.com/album/labyrinth-of-shadows