Sam Carter • Tubal Cain • Live at The Old Band Room

New EP 'The Oakham Poacher' Out Now: https://samcartermusic.co.uk/links Filmed at the Old Band Room in Dungworth, Sheffield, August 2025. I came across Tubal Cain a few years ago while digging through the Vaughan Williams Memorial Library. I was looking for a kind of traditional counterpart to my song The Forge, and this one stood out. Though it crops up on broadsides, the lyrics are by the Scottish poet Charles MacKay (1814–1889). The poem tells the story of Tubal Cain, a biblical figure mentioned briefly in Genesis as “a forger of all instruments of bronze and iron” — in some translations, the first blacksmith. At first, Tubal Cain enjoys the fame and fortune that come from making weapons. But he’s eventually horrified to realise that his creations are being used for violence and destruction. He stops working, falls into despair, and only returns to his forge when he decides to use his skills to make ploughshares instead. What strikes me most is that, when Tubal Cain sees the damage caused by his creations, he doesn’t shrug and say, “swords don’t kill people, people do!” He takes responsibility – and stops making them. I’ll leave you to consider the contemporary parallels here. #fingerstyle #folk #acousticguitar #dadgad