SETH Lakeman, the 28-year-old fiddler from West Devon, has suddenly and unexpectedly shot to the top of the mainstream music industry along with household names, including Coldplay and the Kaiser Chiefs. His album, ?Kitty Jay?, written, recorded and performed by Seth, was selected as one of just 12 albums to contest the Nationwide Mercury Music Awards 2005 ? not the predicted outcome for someone who plays ?folk?. Seth?s music stimulates the musical imagination of everyone who listens to him, and the now famous album, ?Kitty Jay?, mixes traditional styles and folk tales, while manipulating the fiddle, guitar and voice to provoke an addictive and irresistible sound and rhythm. Seth?s most recent performance in Tavistock took place just days after his nomination. A vast number of people turned up to watch him in action at Jack Cham?s ? so big a crowd that many people were unable to get into the room in which he was performing, and instead, stood precariously on the stairs, hoping for a glimpse of this folk performer. Despite shooting to the top of his career in days, Seth remains modest about his work, admitting Jack Cham?s was ?not a very good performance, not one of my best, more of a celebration?. With other musicians, Seth has already toured America and sold out Portsmouth and Newcastle, so we can hardly claim him to be the ?new-kid-on-the-block?. But the album that everyone is now talking about was done on a shoestring, costing just £300 and made in a kitchen alongside his producer and brother, Sean, while Coldplay spent a massive £300,000 on their nominated album. Seth is proud of his work, and said his Mercury nomination was ?mind-blowing ?hard to get my head around?. He said the staggering thing was ?getting folk into the mainstream? which had never been done before. ?Kitty Jay? is one of those rare albums that remains in your CD player for months and is continuously looped, with so many different styles to listen to, but all relating to the same theme ?the local area. The CD mainly refers to Dartmoor, although Plymouth and other ports are also mentioned, but Seth believes that is where it all started going right for him. His new album, which will be out either at the end of this year or the beginning of next still makes ?a lot of local references?. ?Kitty Jay? was inspired by one of the most famous legends of Dartmoor, and goes by the same name, telling of a servant girl who mysteriously dies in the snow, with people lying fresh flowers on her grave to this day. The Kitty Jay story was a massive inspiration and from it branched two other songs on the album, the ?Ballad of Josie?, which depicts how Kitty would have walked onto the moor, and unknowingly into her death, and ?Farewell my Lover?. People who want to move into the music business don?t always get the advice they hunger for. Reminiscing about school days spent at Tavistock College, he remembers fondly the numerous times he spoke to teachers and careers advisors, who, with general consensus, informed the Mercury nominee about music, saying, there is ?no career, apart from being a music teacher?! It would have been hard for Seth to do anything other than music, with his family performing a variety of styles. His father, Geoff, performs in ?Speakeasy?, a group which focuses on 1920s and 30s traditional jazz, and Seth acknowledges his fellow musicians, saying ?everyone I play with has a certain amount of influence on me?. However, he admits although he enjoys playing his father?s music it was ?not a huge influence for ?Kitty Jay? which really was Seth?s work, writing and arranging all the pieces himself. Things are already happening for Seth, with phone calls regarding tours with the Levellers and Rufus Wainwright, although some plans may have to go on hold in the build up to the Mercury Awards, including his European Tour with singer Carus. The nomination has now given him a boost into a much wider audience of which he is grateful, but that will not change his style or roots. The 28-year-old simply says he just wants to, get ?as far afield as possible?.