Sam Fender has today (November 24) shared an emotive cover of the ’70s folk track, ‘Winter Song’.

Described as a “stark, raw and heartfelt recording”, the song is a cover of a track originally recorded by Alan Hull and Lindisfarne.

A press release described Alan Hull as “a local legend” for the people of Newcastle, where Fender is from.

The press release added: “As meaningful to the people of Newcastle as The Beatles were to the people of Liverpool, Lindisfarne might never have reached the dizzying heights of John Lennon’s men, but in vocalist and songwriter Alan Hull, they had an artist whose music reached and touched millions, and who hundreds of thousands of Geordies, over the generations, remain fiercely proud.”

Speaking about the song, Fender said: “I wanted to do a Christmas song, and wanted it to be close to my home and my heart. For me, the words are more relevant this year than ever. Christmas won’t be the same for a lot of people this year, and that’s why I picked Winter Song.

“Alan Hull truly was one of the most fantastic and underrated writers of his time. Geordie legend. I hope I’ve done it justice, I’m really proud of it.”

The lyric video for the video, which you can watch above, is a collaboration with ‘People of the Streets (POTS)’, a social enterprise that helps to support the homeless.

Together with his collaboration with POTS, Fender is also selling The Big Issue via his official store with all profits going to the magazine to split between vendors.

Fender recently told NME that he believes his upcoming new record is “miles better” than his debut. The singer spoke to NME after he played one of the UK’s first major socially distanced gigs at the Virgin Money Unity Arena in Newcastle in August.

Asked about the current progress of the follow-up to 2019’s ‘Hypersonic Missiles’, Fender said that “it’s a much more cohesive piece of work” so far.

“For me, this feels like my first album. [‘Hypersonic Missiles’] was a collection of songs over five years, so it’s not sonically cohesive for me,” he explained. “It has songs like ‘The Borders’ and ‘Two People’ that I love and I’m proud of, but the record itself felt more like a ‘Greatest Hits’ before I’d even had any hits!”

Reviewing ‘Hypersonic Missiles’ upon its release, NME wrote: “‘Hypersonic Missiles’ mostly hits the notes he longs to convey: it’s by turns euphoric and melancholy, self-deprecating and righteous, untethered and claustrophobic. There are no easy answers here, but Sam Fender’s asking the right questions.”