About Me
*martin's myspace mail does not work*
Martin was born in May 1953 in Scunthorpe in Lincolnshire. He grew up in a household full of music, from his mother’s Paul Robeson records, his father’s light opera singing and the record collections of his two elder brothers. He wanted a guitar so badly, even at a young age, that he fashioned one out of a toy boat and some elastic bands and was found strumming away at it as a toddler! By the age of 12 his big brother Geoff and his Uncle had clubbed together to buy him his first guitar and he never looked back. By the age of 13 he was also playing the banjo, at 14 he made his first paid appearance and was a regular performer at the Scunthorpe Folk Club. Like his friend and namesake, Martin Carthy, he still plays the British folk club circuit as eagerly as the grandest music rooms of the world.
In 1976, his first solo album, Golden Vanity, brought him to the attention of a wider public and within a year he was touring the world, supporting Steeleye Span at the heyday of their career.
He was courted by the mainstream music business to pursue the career of a rock and roll star but in 1977 he decided to follow his love of traditional music and formed a partnership with the great June Tabor, whose previous guitarist had been the legendary Nic Jones. Their remarkable decade-long partnership produced a triptych of highly influential albums in A Cut Above (1980), Abyssinians (1983) and Aqaba (1988). Martin moved to the United States in 1987 but it was not to be the end of their partnership and they still perform together to this day.
A lover of the great Afro-American Blues Singers from the beginning, Martin’s time in America continued to influence his playing and choice of material. His eclectic mix of Anglo and American traditions brought him widespread fame and respect on the Acoustic scene and led to musical collaborations with great figures such as Jackson Browne, Steve Miller, David Lindley and Kelly Joe Phelps.
When he returned to live in the UK in 2002, and released the sublime collection of traditional material, Bramble Briar, the music scene welcomed him with open arms – that year he won Best Album and Musician of the Year at the 2002 BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards and his reputation as a unique and spell-binding live performer has grown and grown over the years. Colin Irwin in The Independent wrote of his main stage performance at the 2004 Cambridge Folk Festival …. “out-shining them all was the prodigal guitar maestro, Martin Simpson … the defining moment of the whole weekendâ€,
Following Bramble Briar with the excellent CD, Righteousness & Humidity, he won yet another Musician of the Year Award at the 2005 BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards, where Righteousness itself was nominated for Album of the Year. The next release, Kind Letters, won him more Folk Award nominations and glittering reviews in the music press.
With the forthcoming release of “Prodigal Sonâ€, on July 30th '07, Martin reaches yet another career-high as his playing and performance skills go from strength to strength. His ability to tell a story in song, with the most poignant and beautiful guitar accompaniment is breathtaking and this CD sees his song-writing skills mature and astonish. Live performances of the song “Never Any Goodâ€, which he wrote for his father and the instrumental piece, “Mother Love†about his daughter, have reduced audience members to tears of nostalgia and delight in equal measure. Here he has recorded them with beautiful arrangements and the playing and singing of great friends. Martin Simpson is a jewel in the crown of traditional music and a stellar performer on the international stage.
