REVIEW – Devizes Arts Festival – Martin Simpson @ Corn Exchange 12th June 2024

Masterclass

by Andy Fawthrop

Devizes Arts Festival’s programme continued last night, and it was the turn of another big name to grace the stage of the Corn Exchange.

Martin Simpson is, in the contemporary folk world at least, the equivalent of Royalty, or a National Treasure.  He’s been performing and recording for over forty years, and I’ve personally had the pleasure of seeing him live in concert and at music festivals several times over the years, so I was very much looking forward to this one.

Martin is the consummate singer/ songwriter. His performances are always filled with remarkable intimate solo guitar playing in the finger-picking style, and each gig is a masterclass.  One of the hardest-working people on the folk/ roots circuit, he travels the length and breadth of the UK and beyond, giving audiences passion, sorrow, love, beauty, tragedy and majesty through his playing. Equally at home playing English traditional folk, American folk and blues, or his own compositions, he is consistently named as one of the very finest fingerstyle guitar players in the world.

Nor is he an artist who sits still for very long, averaging a brand new studio album almost every two years.  His latest offering “Skydancers” is his 12th full length solo record since 1992.  Recorded in his home town of Sheffield, the album collects new, self-penned originals alongside 18th century broadside ballads and reverent re-workings from the songbooks of (amongst) others, Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell, Woody Guthrie, Nancy Kerr, June Tabor and Craig Johnson.

Last night “Skydancers” featured heavily, as might have been expected, with several tracks to the fore, narrated laconically with the story behind each one.  The early numbers were laid-back, contemplative and without introduction, but then Martin took the audience into his confidence, and talked us through his thinking. There were a couple of political jibes at the state of the current Government, but largely he stuck to the song-writing and the music-making.  And with hardly any noticeable shift, we switched from the traditional across to the modern, to Bob Dylan’s “Buckets of Rain”.

His singing was strong, with the familiar nasal twang, but it was the guitar-playing that really caught the imagination.  Even his tuning-up trills, and introductions were little classics.  His fondness for tuning and re-tuning (by ear) is legendary in the folk world, but last night it was more disguised as he regaled us with stories relating to the genesis and/ or the content of each song.  There were birds such as the hen-harrier (the “skydancer”), kites, swallows, and buzzards.  There were trees and hills.  There was the Wessex Ridgeway and Slapton Sands. There were real and legendary historical characters.  There were name-drops.  It was all fascinating stuff.  And then, after what had only seemed to be twenty minutes, more than twice that time had actually passed, and we were into the interval, where The Mighty Simpson Marketing Machine swung into action.  (This just meant Martin himself selling CDs in the foyer and chatting to fans, but it sounds good).

The second half brought more of the same, but with perhaps more of an Appalachian, Americana feel to several numbers.  We had covers from Jackson C. Frank and Leon Rosselson, Anne Briggs.  We had re-worked traditional songs, including an Easter carol, and we had more self-penned material.  Again, the audience was rapt, and there was never any doubt that there would be huge applause and an encore.

Another absolutely sparkling night of world-class entertainment.  Another hit for the Arts Festival.

You can find out more about Martin at www.martinsimpson.com  

The Devizes Arts Festival continues until Sunday 16^th June at various venues around the town. 

Tickets can be booked at Devizes Books or online at www.devizesartsfestival.org.uk 

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