About this concert
Stunning, heartfelt music\nBob Harris BBC Radio 2,\n"Intelligent and enlightened songs are both energising and provocativefrom subtle tenderness to growly indignation. A Welsh national treasure MOJO\nOne of acoustic music's most original voices, and most forward looking of his generation of singer/songwriters\nQ Magazine\nMartyn Joseph is a completely unique and mind blowing artist. Take everything you think you know about singer songwriters.and rip it up. For one man and a guitar he creates a performance with a huge far-reaching sound that is energetic, compelling and passionate. Be it to two hundred people or twenty thousand, he blows the crowd away night after night.\nHe is gifted with the rare ability to speak to the soul with his expressive and poignant lyrics and has a career spanning 30 years, 32 albums, over a half a million record sales and thousands of live performances.\nCompared to Bruce Springsteen, John Mayer, Bruce Cockburn and Dave Matthews, he has created his own style and reputation as a mesmerising live performer and stands in his own right, built on a reputation for giving what thousands have described as the best live music experience of their lives. A unique talent driven by passion, social awareness and love for his trade, he's a jaw dropping guitar player who has developed a unique percussive style, teamed up with a powerful show stopping voice, and has been called The Welsh Springsteen\nIn addition to his 5 top 50 UK hits, the importance of his work has been recognised by programmes such as BBC Radio 2's prime time series on Singer/Songwriters. Social justice has an essential presence throughout his music, which has been recognised with various humanitarian awards and plaudits.\nConcerned with making music that is relevant and vital to his audience, he engages with challenging narratives tackling the complexity of the human condition, underpinned with a promise of hope. In his own words Really what I do is to try and write songs that might step up and make some sense of a moment in time. A good song makes you feel like you're not alone in the world. \nThere is a versatility to Martyn's music that is hard to categorise. Many have tried, resulting in labels such as Folk, Rock, Soul, Folk Funk and Americana; all of which somehow miss the mark. But sometimes music doesn't need a defining genre and with the ability to articulate a sense of the bigger picture, Martyn's music and social commentary manage to empower and speak for many. His songs are pictures, and stories, and feelings all put to music and delivered by a master craftsman.\nIn 2013 Martyn released a CD of Bruce Springsteen songs, to great public and critical acclaim, with the glowing endorsement of Dave Marsh, acclaimed American music critic, official Springsteen biographer and close friend of the Boss himself.\n2014 saw him take the spirit of his music onto a more practical footing with the launch of his Let Yourself Trust, a not-for-profit organisation which aims to make a small difference out of great love and commitment by challenging injustice wherever it's found, educating via advocacy, campaigning for human rights, and raising issues that have been forgotten or ignored via fundraising initiatives, thus bringing about greater awareness for beautiful people in powerless situations. He's also Patron of Advantage Africa and Festival Spirit in the UK and Project Somos in Canada/Guatemala.\nHe has won the love of audiences from USA and Canada to Europe through an impressive number of live dates, and has previously toured with the likes of Art Garfunkel, Jools Holland, Ani DiFranco, Suzanne Vega, Mike and The Mechanics, Joan Armatrading, Celine Dion and Shirley Bassey. He is hailed as a raconteur weaving tales on topical concerns, as well as stories on the fragility of love, with a magical ability to reach out to his listeners through his passion and humour. Stunning reviews single him out as an unmissable solo performer whose music stays with you long after the show has ended.\n2016 was one of Martyn's busiest, playing over 170 shows worldwide, he was also asked by the EFDSS and British Parliament to write and perform as part ofSweet Liberties with Nancy Kerr, Sam Carter and Maz O'Connor to mark 800 years of British democracy, One of his songs from this, Nye celebrating Nye Bevan, the author of the NHS, has been enthusiastically received by audiences everywhere, as well as having BBC national airplay on Mark Radcliffe's Folk Show and Tom Robinson's 6 Music show.\nAutumn 2018 will see the release of his 33rd studio album, produced by Gerry Diver (Tom Robinson, Lisa Knapp and Sam Lee) \nMartyn Joseph. A unique talent driven by passion and love for his trade, continues to write, sing and play from the heart. It's a road he's been travelling for most of his life and, as he often tells his audience, 'you keep turning up and so will I.'\nDoors 7.30. Performance 8.00.\nHot drinks available. BYO alcohol.\nwww.martynjoseph.net\nwww.facebook.com/martynjosephwales\nwww.twitter.com/martyn_joseph\nwww.letyourself.net\nVIDEOS\nI Searched for You https://youtu.be/tIVA5_k6rfo \nNye Song for the NHS https://youtu.be/8IBmmXn1QwM \nLet Yourself https://youtu.be/XqZJX4jzavo \nHer Name is Rose https://youtu.be/pCo7SnZsTZ8
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Simon
February 3rd 2024
Fantastic performance as usual, passionate, moving and hopeful.
Liverpool, United Kingdom@Music Room
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Martyn Joseph Biography
Who is Martyn Joseph?
At first glance Martyn Joseph is (just) another gifted singer songwriter. First impressions are there to mislead of course: Joseph's ambition is broader than entertainment, deeper than commerce. Some musicians want to move your feet, some just want to move you: Martyn Joseph wants to move heaven and earth. Somewhere back in the middle distance Martyn Joseph emerged from the pack and we began to notice. For a moment there he might have been a pop-star, certainly a protest-singer, a balladeer now and then, a Celtic rock star before they were in vogue, a folk troubadour and then, just, Martyn Joseph. Darkness on the edge of Cardiff. If he has a reputation onstage as a raconteur, extemporizing lyrics to fit every occasion, his songs have always been infected with a discreet but defiant god bothering, music more interested in the forgotten than the remembered, the way things might be than the way they have become. It is less the ghost of Tom Jones than a Holy Ghost music, an aching and a longing for another way, another place, where you can treasure the questions that have no answers. Depending on where he was at the time, some of these songs have had a fortune spent on colouring them in while others are the second-take line drawings from the home studio or Polaroid's snapped live in the back of beyond.
The consistency is the voice the place where he stands, from where he chooses to look at life. This is music that articulates a yearning for another world that is yet to be born, songs of sorrow acquainted with grief but, nevertheless, melodies carried in sunlight, thunder and rainbows from the same sky. And as his 'Best Of' collection illustrates, Joseph's work matures with age. If these songs are already word-perfect to fans, in the future they will be covered by Britain's two leading contemporary music magazines Q, and, MoJo, respectively, describe Martyn Joseph as having 'a depth, resonance and emotional punch, which belies comparisons', and as being 'an artist of enduring worth'. Meanwhile The Guardian was transfixed by this gifted and gracious Welshman's 'burnished voice' whilst Tom Robinson of BBC 6 Music and iconic songwriter himself, regards Martyn as one of Britain's 'most charismatic and electrifying performers'. The Boston Globe concluded that the man was a 'profound experience'. Such press plaudits, and there are many more to choose from, would make any publicist purr with pleasure, but for Martyn Joseph, he regards them in a detached, almost incidental kind of way. For Martyn, 'it's the song that matters'. Yet such is Martyn's stature as an acoustic artist of almost hypnotic ability that BBC Radio 2, Britain's most listened to radio network, featured Martyn in their peak-time series on Singer/Songwriters. To be awarded the garland of your own programme on the Sony 'Station Of The Year', and placed alongside the likes of Elvis Costello, Richard Thompson and Mary Chapin Carpenter really says it all about Martyn's abilities.
Martyn's 20 year career has embraced some notable achievements including 5 Top 50 UK chart positions, with such songs as 'Dolphins Make Me Cry', 'Working Mother' and 'Let's Talk About It In The Morning', and appearances and tours with, amongst others, Suzanne Vega, Marc Cohn, Joan Armatrading, Clannad, Chris De Burgh, Jools Holland, Art Garfunkel, and even, Celine Dion. However, for Martyn, these various accomplishments, satisfying though they are, count as just part of the process, the necessary presentation aspect. As he says, 'Really what I do is try and write songs that might make a difference'.
His touring work and appearances over the years, on both sides of the Atlantic, have helped to establish this gifted and gracious Welshman as one of the foremost singer/songwriters of his generation. As Janis Ian said of sharing a stage with Martyn 'I loved working with him. I loved listening to him, I'd love to work with him again, anytime, anyplace'. Martyn's particular strength is in the lyrical narrative of his songs, be they contemporary protests against injustice and inhumanity, a musical psalm to the fulfillment and fragilities of love, or a piercing précis of social history, 'it's the song that can soothe, explain, and even in a small way save us'. In this manner he carries on in the tradition of the six string balladeer as both catalyst and interpreter of our raddled and rewarding times, our personal and communal stories sung out loud in the spirit of Woody Guthrie, Ewan MacColl, Hank Williams and Bruce Springsteen. That tradition, and sound, that thankfully still emerges from The Hallowed Hobo's Hall of Fame.
Across a 10 year cycle of albums from the Sony days of 'Being There' to his recent two volume live compilation 'Don't Talk About Love, Martyn's song catalogue is an awesomely impressive archive of our times, our tribulations, our wonder and our wounds. Amongst the considerable collection of positive reviews of Martyn's recording and live work, the two regularly recurring words describing, in particular, his performances are 'passion' and 'humour'. One observer after seeing Martyn in concert likened the experience and content to 'the beautiful business of being alive with all its jokes, absurdity and sadness, seared by music for the heart and head'. When you encounter Martyn Joseph, you'll hear likewise...
Read MoreAt first glance Martyn Joseph is (just) another gifted singer songwriter. First impressions are there to mislead of course: Joseph's ambition is broader than entertainment, deeper than commerce. Some musicians want to move your feet, some just want to move you: Martyn Joseph wants to move heaven and earth. Somewhere back in the middle distance Martyn Joseph emerged from the pack and we began to notice. For a moment there he might have been a pop-star, certainly a protest-singer, a balladeer now and then, a Celtic rock star before they were in vogue, a folk troubadour and then, just, Martyn Joseph. Darkness on the edge of Cardiff. If he has a reputation onstage as a raconteur, extemporizing lyrics to fit every occasion, his songs have always been infected with a discreet but defiant god bothering, music more interested in the forgotten than the remembered, the way things might be than the way they have become. It is less the ghost of Tom Jones than a Holy Ghost music, an aching and a longing for another way, another place, where you can treasure the questions that have no answers. Depending on where he was at the time, some of these songs have had a fortune spent on colouring them in while others are the second-take line drawings from the home studio or Polaroid's snapped live in the back of beyond.
The consistency is the voice the place where he stands, from where he chooses to look at life. This is music that articulates a yearning for another world that is yet to be born, songs of sorrow acquainted with grief but, nevertheless, melodies carried in sunlight, thunder and rainbows from the same sky. And as his 'Best Of' collection illustrates, Joseph's work matures with age. If these songs are already word-perfect to fans, in the future they will be covered by Britain's two leading contemporary music magazines Q, and, MoJo, respectively, describe Martyn Joseph as having 'a depth, resonance and emotional punch, which belies comparisons', and as being 'an artist of enduring worth'. Meanwhile The Guardian was transfixed by this gifted and gracious Welshman's 'burnished voice' whilst Tom Robinson of BBC 6 Music and iconic songwriter himself, regards Martyn as one of Britain's 'most charismatic and electrifying performers'. The Boston Globe concluded that the man was a 'profound experience'. Such press plaudits, and there are many more to choose from, would make any publicist purr with pleasure, but for Martyn Joseph, he regards them in a detached, almost incidental kind of way. For Martyn, 'it's the song that matters'. Yet such is Martyn's stature as an acoustic artist of almost hypnotic ability that BBC Radio 2, Britain's most listened to radio network, featured Martyn in their peak-time series on Singer/Songwriters. To be awarded the garland of your own programme on the Sony 'Station Of The Year', and placed alongside the likes of Elvis Costello, Richard Thompson and Mary Chapin Carpenter really says it all about Martyn's abilities.
Martyn's 20 year career has embraced some notable achievements including 5 Top 50 UK chart positions, with such songs as 'Dolphins Make Me Cry', 'Working Mother' and 'Let's Talk About It In The Morning', and appearances and tours with, amongst others, Suzanne Vega, Marc Cohn, Joan Armatrading, Clannad, Chris De Burgh, Jools Holland, Art Garfunkel, and even, Celine Dion. However, for Martyn, these various accomplishments, satisfying though they are, count as just part of the process, the necessary presentation aspect. As he says, 'Really what I do is try and write songs that might make a difference'.
His touring work and appearances over the years, on both sides of the Atlantic, have helped to establish this gifted and gracious Welshman as one of the foremost singer/songwriters of his generation. As Janis Ian said of sharing a stage with Martyn 'I loved working with him. I loved listening to him, I'd love to work with him again, anytime, anyplace'. Martyn's particular strength is in the lyrical narrative of his songs, be they contemporary protests against injustice and inhumanity, a musical psalm to the fulfillment and fragilities of love, or a piercing précis of social history, 'it's the song that can soothe, explain, and even in a small way save us'. In this manner he carries on in the tradition of the six string balladeer as both catalyst and interpreter of our raddled and rewarding times, our personal and communal stories sung out loud in the spirit of Woody Guthrie, Ewan MacColl, Hank Williams and Bruce Springsteen. That tradition, and sound, that thankfully still emerges from The Hallowed Hobo's Hall of Fame.
Across a 10 year cycle of albums from the Sony days of 'Being There' to his recent two volume live compilation 'Don't Talk About Love, Martyn's song catalogue is an awesomely impressive archive of our times, our tribulations, our wonder and our wounds. Amongst the considerable collection of positive reviews of Martyn's recording and live work, the two regularly recurring words describing, in particular, his performances are 'passion' and 'humour'. One observer after seeing Martyn in concert likened the experience and content to 'the beautiful business of being alive with all its jokes, absurdity and sadness, seared by music for the heart and head'. When you encounter Martyn Joseph, you'll hear likewise...
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