An Introduction To

A personally selected and sequenced compilation by Martin Simpson. This new addition to Topic’s series of introductory overviews of the label’s most renowned artists includes an exclusively recorded track by Martin, a wonderful solo acoustic version of Leon Rosselson’s ‘Palaces of Gold’ from his classic 1968 album A Laugh, A Song and a Hand Grenade.

It’s remarkable to think that Martin Simpson is now celebrating some 45 years as a professional musician since, unlike so many of the Topic greats, Simpson was not part of the 50s folk revival or the more expansive contemporary folk scene of the 60s. Effectively, Martin Simpson has spearheaded the generation of folk musicians who only began recording in the mid-70s and is now readily acknowledged as one of the most original and skillful folk guitarists currently playing on the British and American folk scene.

It was as a defining instrumentalist and interpreter of predominantly traditional British and American folk material that Simpson first established himself. Yet, as this new selection amply testifies, he has become a highly gifted songwriter. He first made a significant mark as a songwriter on 2003’s Righteousness & Humidity with a handful of songs that included the evocative truck stop epic ‘Love Never Dies’. Since then he has continued to deliver powerful compositions, none more poignant than the remarkable ‘Banjo Bill’ (from 2011’s Purpose & Grace), based upon the words of Banjo Bill Cornett of Hindman, Kentucky, which testifies to the breadth and scope of Simpson’s writing.

The selection draws almost entirely from Simpson’s solo albums. The exception is Simpson’s moving composition ‘Dark Swift and Bright Swallow’ by the wonderful new trio of Martin Simpson, Andy Cutting and Nancy Kerr, a stunning expression of the joy of playing and singing between three absolutely intuitive musicians. Other collaborations – notably with June Tabor and The Full English – almost double the number of albums Simpson has put his name to, and let’s not even try to calculate the number of his contributions as a musician to other people’s work in the past forty years including albums by Andrew Cronshaw, Martin Carthy, father-in-law Roy Bailey, Steve Tilston, Eliza Carthy, Dick Gaughan, Fay Hield and then some.

It’s a further measure of this acknowledgment that Simpson has been nominated an astounding 31 times in the fifteen years of the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards – more than any other performer – with 9 consecutive years as nominee for Musician of The Year, which he has won twice.