Martin Simpson

For the Isle of Wight-based British paleontologist, South, played on a variety of instruments and featuring
see Martin I. Simpson. For the Whitby-based British Steeleye Span's Rick Kemp. This recording was a nomgeologist (1800-1892), see Martin Simpson (geologist). inee for BBC folk awards album of the year in 2004.
Simpson won the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards in 2004 in
the category of Best Musician.[3] This was followed in
Martin Stewart Simpson (born 5 May 1953) is an English folk singer, guitarist and songwriter. His music re- 2005 by Kind Letters in which he mines once again the
rich seams of English folk music which proved so fruitful
ects a wide variety of inuences and styles, rooted in
for The Bramble Briar.
Britain, Ireland, America and beyond.
In 2007 Simpson released Prodigal Son. The 2008 BBC
Radio 2 Folk Awards voted it as best album. The fRoots
critics poll voted it as the 7th best new album of 2007.
1 Biography
It is a mixture of traditional songs and Simpson originals, the highlights of which possess a distinctly southern
Martin Simpson was born in Scunthorpe, England. He American avor. Jackson Browne, Kate Rusby and Kellie
took an early interest in music, learning to play the guitar While guest star here. In December 2007 he performed
and banjo and performing at local folk clubs. In 1970, on Later... with Jools Holland.
he dropped out of John Leggott College[1] to become a Simpson has written guitar instruction books and
full-time musician.
recorded DVD guitar tutorials. His career came full circle in 2003 when he teamed up with June Tabor again.
In 2004 he surprised everyone by performing at a gig in
Nettlebed, Oxford, where he played banjo all evening,
without touching a guitar. A readers poll of the magazine
Acoustic Guitar voted him as number 12 in the world in
2005. Martin is now married to Kit Bailey, the daughter
In 1985 he moved to Bloomington, Indiana and married
of the singer Roy Bailey, with whom Martin occasionally
American singer Jessica Radclie, and shortly afterwards
performs. Martin and Kit now live in Sheeld and have
they relocated to Ithaca, New York. During the decade he
a young daughter, Molly.
continued recording a mix of traditional and more contemporary material, including several entirely instrumen- Performances of note to the general public include a 2007
appearance on Jools Holland's BBC show and a half hour
tal albums.
set at the Proms on 20 July 2008 broadcast on BBC4.[4]
Notable work in the 1990s included, in 1995, an album
with Chinese pipa play Wu Man, Music for the Motherless Child. The album was produced in a single session,
between 7:00pm and 2:30am,[2] and blends western and 2 Awards and recognition
Chinese improvisational approaches, although ve of its
six tracks come from British or US traditions. In a simi- He has been nominated 23 times in the 11 years of the
lar vein was Kambara Music in Native Tongues with David BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards, including nine times consecHidalgo from Los Lobos and violinist Viji Krishnan, a utively as Artist of The Year, which he has won twice.
mix of Hindu and contemporary songs.
His album Prodigal Son was named album of the year in
In 1976 he recorded his rst solo album Golden Vanity.
In the same year he opened for Steeleye Span on their UK
tour. Martin also toured and performed with folk singer
June Tabor, who did not play an instrument herself. They
would later record three albums together.

Not until 1999 did he record several of his own compositions on Bootleg USA. It was then, along with Jessica
Raclie, that he co-founded a record label called High
Bohemia. During his 1994 visit to the UK, he recorded
Martin Simpson Live in Oxford. In 1999 he was a session
musician for an album by Welsh singer Julie Murphy. The
Bramble Briar (2001) was a turn to basics, a collection of
English traditional folk songs.

2008 and a song from that album, Never Any Good was
named best original song of the year.

The accompanying book to the Topic Records 70 year

anniversary boxed set Three Score and Ten lists Prodigal
Son as one of Topics classic albums.[5]:94 Never Any Good
from the album is track seven on the fth disk in the boxed
set and Masters of War from Grinning In Your Face is
track four of the sixth disk. He was a session musician on
2003 saw the release of Righteousness and Humidity, a June Tabors album Aqaba which is another of the classic
set focusing almost exclusively on music from the Deep albums.
1

4 DISCOGRAPHY

Martin Simpson is regarded by many as one of the most

skilled folk guitarists currently playing on the British and
American folk scene.

Kind Letters (2005)

Prodigal Son (2007)
True Stories (2009)

Instruments

While best known as an acoustic guitarist, Martin originally started out as a banjo player, and also plays the electric guitar. Martins main performance instruments are:
Paul Reed Smith Angelus - Martin currently endorses PRS acoustic guitars, and his signature model
is available to purchase

Purpose + Grace (2011) (UK chart peak: #106)[8]

Vagrant Stanzas (2013)

4.2 Live
Live (recorded 1994, Oxford) (1997)

61 Highway (1999)
Stefan Sobell Martin Simpson Signature Model - for
many years, Martins main performing guitars were
made by British luthier Stefan Sobell, and his signa4.3 Collaborations
ture model can be purchased to special order
Martin is also known to have owned and played guitars by
a number of renowned American luthiers including Ervin
Somogyi, Je Traugott and Bill Tippin, as well as British
luthiers such as Ralph Bown.

4
4.1

Martin and Jessica Ruby Simpson

True Dare or Promise (1987)
Red Roses (1995)

Discography

Band Of Angels (1996)

Solo albums

Martin Simpson and June Tabor

Golden Vanity (1976)

Special Agent (1981)
Grinning in Your Face (1983)
Sad or High Kicking (1985)
Nobodys Fault But Mine (1986)
The Pink Suede Bootleg (Limited Edition Cassette 1987)

A Cut Above (1980)

Martin Simpson and Wu Man
Music for the Motherless Child (1996)
Martin Simpson, David Hidalgo and Viji Krishnan
Kambara Music in Native Tongues (1998)

Leaves of Life (1989) - instrumentals.

When I Was on Horseback (1991)
A Closer Walk with Thee (1994) [6][7]

Martin Simpson, Jessica Radclie and Lisa Ekstrom

Beautiful Darkness (2001)

Smoke and Mirrors (1995)

Cool and Unusual (1997) - mainly British traditional 4.4 Other compilations
ballads.
The Collection (1992)
Bootleg USA (1999)
The Bramble Briar (2001)

The Denitive Martin Simpson (2005)

Righteousness and Humidity (2003) - collection of

American blues, played on acoustic and steel guitar,
and banjo.

Three Score and Ten (2009)

The Full English (2013)

4.8

4.5

Book

Martin Simpson as session musician

Andrew Cronshaw: Earthed in Cloud Valley (Trailer

LER 2104) (1977)

4.8 Book
Cool and Unusual: Creative Fingerstyle Guitar Solos
(2000).

Hot Vultures: The East Street Shakes (1977)

Andrew Cronshaw: Wade in the Flood (Highway
LTRA 508) (1978)

5 References

Hot Vultures: Up The Line (1979)

[1] Signicant Alumni. John Leggott College. 2012. Retrieved 27 January 2012.

June Tabor: Abyssinians (1983)

[2] Music for the Motherless Child album notes.

June Tabor: Aqaba (1988)

[3] BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards. BBC. 2004. Retrieved 27

January 2012.

Albion Band: Lark Rise To Candleford (1980)

John & Mary: The Weedkillers Daughter (1993)

[4] Martin Simpson Biography.

2012. Retrieved 27 January 2012.

Julie Murphy: Black Mountain Revisited (1999)

[5] Three Score and Ten Accompanying Book

Chris Leslie: The Flow (2002)

[6] Giore, Daniel. Martin Simpson: A Closer Walk With

Thee at AllMusic. Retrieved 24 August 2015.

June Tabor: An Echo of Hooves (2003)

June Tabor: At The Woods Heart (2005)
Roy Bailey: Sit Down and Sing (2005)
Cara Dillon: After The Morning (2006)
Various Artists: Rubber Folk (2006) (Beatles Tribute)
Lorne MacDougall: Hello World (2010)

4.6

Role in the Albion Band

He was one of the pool of musicians who played with the

Albion Band during their residency at the National Theatre, London, playing for Bill Bryden's company, mainly
in the Cottesloe theatre. He appears on the recording
of music from Lark Rise to Candleford, although the albums attributions are inaccurate.

4.7

DVDs

Acoustic Guitar Instrumentals - Martin Simpson Vol

1 (1993)
Martin Simpson Teaches Alternate Tunings (2002)
Instrumentals 2 (2005)
Martins 4 (2005) - Martin Carthy, Martin Simpson,
Martin Taylor and Juan Martin.
In Concert At The Freight and Salvage (Berkeley,
California) (2005)
Guitar Maestros - Martin Simpson (2006)
Prodigal Son - The Concert (2009)

martinsimpson.com.

[7] Martin Simpson A Closer Walker With Thee [sic] at

Discogs
[8] Chart Log UK: New Entries Update 17 September 2011
(wk36)". zobbel.de. 2011. Retrieved 27 January 2012.

Martin Simpson Home Page

6 TEXT AND IMAGE SOURCES, CONTRIBUTORS, AND LICENSES

Text and image sources, contributors, and licenses

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Images

6.3

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