Nominated for ‘Musician of the Year’ at the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards 2018

Martin Simpson’s remarkable intimate solo performances go from strength to strength – every gig is a masterclass. He travels the length and breadth of the UK and beyond, giving rapt audiences passion, sorrow, love, beauty, tragedy and majesty through his playing. Martin is a guitarist of formidable talent. Equally at home playing English traditional folk, American folk and blues and his own compositions, he is consistently named as one of the very finest fingerstyle guitar players in the world.

40 years after he recorded his first album, Golden Vanity, in 1976, Martin’s latest album, Trails and Tribulations, will be released in September on Topic Records. The brand-new studio album is his first new solo work since 2013’s widely praised Vagrant Stanzas.

Simpson is a remarkable storyteller: captivating and profoundly moving. His own songwriting produced the poignant ‘Never Any Good’, from Prodigal Son, 2007’s Folk Album of the Year. He has had the most nominations of any performer in the 15 years of the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards, an astonishing 31 times, 12 of those as Musician of the Year, winning that particular accolade twice.

Martin continues to collaborate with a dazzling array of people from across the musical spectrum. In recent years, he has been a lynchpin in the award-winning Full English, The Elizabethan Session and, in 2015, recorded Murmurs, an exciting new album with Andy Cutting and Nancy Kerr. Guests on his latest album include Ben Nicholls (string bass and electric bass guitars), Toby Kearney (drums and percussion), Nancy Kerr (fiddle and viola), Andy Cutting (diatonic accordion and melodeon) and his daughter Molly Simpson on vocals.

‘One of the virtuoso instrumentalists of the English music scene… Sounds better than ever’ ★★★★ The Guardian
‘A fine interpreter of traditional and other songs, as well as a notable writer of his own.’ The Times
‘A potent blend of the highest calibre… Simpson has never sung or played better’ Acoustic Magazine
‘One of our finest traditional musicians, Simpson’s album offers a roving overview of his talents’ ★★★★ Uncut
‘An excellent collection of material drawn from both sides of the Atlantic handled with loving care by Simpson and aided by some of the biggest names in folk’ ★★★★ Maverick