Martin Simpson Biography

Martin Simpson (b 1953) is an English guitarist. He was born on 5 May 1953 in Scunthorpe, England. By the age of 12 he was playing guitar and banjo. The British folk singer, Access campaigner and radio presenter Mike Harding tells a story that when he was performing at a folk club in the Scunthorpe area in 1960s he was persuaded to let a "local kid" stand up and play the banjo, essentially humouring the bow, thinking he would be pretty usel ss. The kid then proceeded to blow the audience away with a mature and fully formed finger-picking banjo display, rahter overshadowing the astonished Harding. The kid was, of course, Martin Simpson. In 1970 he dropped out of college to become a full-time professional musician, touring folk clubs. In 1976 he recorded his first solo album "Golden Vanity". In the same year he opened for Steeleye Span on their UK tour. Teaming up with June Tabor, a folk singer who didn't play an instrument, Martin toured folk clubs and appeared at festivals. They recorded three albums together, highlighting each other's complementary talents. There was a fluid jazzy feel about their approach to traditional material. In 1985 he married an American singer Jessica Radcliffe. Together they recorded "Truth Dare or Promise" (1987) and shortly afterwards relocated to America, living initially in Ithaca, New York.

Over the next ten years he became more and more adventurous, playing blues, bluegrass, cajun and even Indian-inflected music. "Cool and Unusual" (1997) lived up to its title. Several admired guitarists joined him on this all-instrumental album, including David Lindley. "A Closer Walk With Thee" presented Christian hymns. "Smoke and Mirrors" was such a confident display of blues, that some people thought he was American. Not until 1999 did he record several of his own compositions on "Bootleg USA". He founded a record label called "High Bohemia". Perhaps suffering from homesickness, he visited the UK in 1994, recording "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 British traditional folk songs. 2003 saw the release of "Rightousness and Humidity", a set focusing almost exclusively on music from the Deep South, played on a variety of instruments and featuring Steeleye Span's Rick Kemp. It was a nominee for BBC folk awards album of the year in 2004. This was followed up in 2005 by "Kind Letters" in which he mines once again the rich seams of English folk music which proved so fruitful for "The Bramble Briar".

Martin has written guitar instruction books and 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. Sadly his marriage to Jessica Ruby Simpson came to an end in the early years of the 21st century. Jessica Ruby Simpson is not related to the more famous pop singer Jessica Ann Simpson (born 1980).