This year marks the 20th anniversary of the release of Martin Simpson’s‘The Bramble Briar.’
A native of Scunthorpe in Lincolnshire, Martin Simpson had left to live out his
American dream 12 years earlier, living in such diverse places as New Orleans,
upstate New York and Santa Cruz, California.
Already recognised as one of the
great acoustic guitarists of his generation when he left, he immersed himself
in American music and honed his skills playing throughout the USA. This album
heralded his return to the motherland with a bang. Universally lauded, it won
the BBC Radio 2 Folk Award for The Best Album of The Year in 2002. Martin was
also awarded the prize for Best Musician that year and again in 2004.
The Topic Records "Introduction" series of compilations are the ideal way to familiarise yourself with some of Topic Records’ biggest artists and they make great gifts for any budding folk fans.
An Introduction to June Tabor & An Introduction to Anne Briggs on Topic Records...
The second two releases in the Topic Introduction series are available now/..
An Introduction to June Tabor (TICD003) An introduction to the magical work of June Tabor. Covering songs from her many record releases on the Topic Record label between 1976 to 2011. June Tabor is quiet simply one of Britain’s greatest interpreters of popular Folk song and has been described by Elvis Costello as ‘The great voice of English folk music’.
Track list: 1. While Gamekeepers Lie Sleeping / 2. The Band Played Waltzing Matilda / 3. The Devil and Bailiff McGlynn / 4. No Man’s Land / Flowers of The Forest / 5. Unicorns / 6. The Scarecrow / 7. Aqaba / 8. Hedger And Ditcher / 9. Shallow Brown / 10. A Place Called England / 11. Maybe Then I’ll Be A Rose / 12. Oh! Alas, I Am In Love / 13. The Rigs Of Rye / 14. Finisterre / 15. The Dark End Of The Street
An Introduction to Anne Briggs (TICD004) An introduction to the magical work of Anne Briggs. Tracks include early recordings featured on albums ‘The Iron Muse’ and ‘The Bird In The Bush’ as well as material from her Hazards of Love E.P. and stunning solo album simply titled Anne Briggs. There is also the inclusion of tracks from her long-lost album ‘Sing A Song For You’.
Track list: 1. The Recruited Collier / 2. The Doffing Mistress / 3. Polly Vaughan / 4. Rosemary Lane / 5. Gathering Rushes In The Month Of May / 6. The Stonecutter Boy / 7. Blackwater Side / 8. Go Your Way (My Love) / 9. The Cuckoo / 10. Reynardine / 11. Young Tambling / 12. Maa Bonny Boy / 13. Sing A Song For You / 14. The Bonambuie / 15. Tongue In Cheek
The 14th release in Topic’s acclaimed ‘An
Introduction To…’ series celebrates the classic English folk singer,
fingerstyle guitarist and fiddle player, Nic Jones. Compiled by Nic
himself, the album includes sleeve notes by Colin Irwin (fRoots/The Guardian)
and two previously unreleased 2013 studio tracks, ‘Now’ and ‘I Only Spoke
Portuguese.’
Nic Jones has won awards galore, has made some
fantastic albums and played with the likes of June Tabor, Martin Carthy,
Richard and Linda Thompson, Peter Bellamy and Shirley Collins to name but a
few. There is no doubt he would have made even more fantastic music had it not
been for a tragic car crash that robbed this world of his magic touch. 1980 saw
the release of his classic album Penguin Eggs on Topic Records but less than
two years later, fate took a disastrous turn. After a gig and while traveling
home his car collided head-on with a brick lorry. Virtually every bone in his
body was broken. The shock waves reverberated around the entire folk world. The
battle to rebuild his body and his life was long and tortuous. He would never
play again, that was for sure.
Except. Except, eventually – well, almost thirty
years eventually – he did.
Coerced, encouraged, protected and inspired by his remarkable wife Julia, he
was able to put the pieces back together again. First lured to play a few
festivals and then in 2013 with the help of his son Joe Jones and Belinda
O’Hooley, record a few new studio tracks, two of which appear on this release
for the first time.
Nic insisted on compiling this introduction to his
work, a mix of material from the Topics classic Penguin Eggs and Game Set Match
albums, tracks included are ‘Humpback Whale’, ‘Seven Yellow Gypsies’, ‘Dives of
Lazarus’ as well as the magical never released before 2013 studio recordings of
‘I Only Speak Portuguese’ and ‘Now.’
I think it’s best to have Nic have the last word.
“I think this selection of tracks represents very
well my working repertoire during the years I was a professional performer. In
music, I have always liked stories, encapsulated in a rhythmic way. I have
enjoyed the visions, true or false, black or white, philosophical or emotional,
played to the best on my old guitar… So here are a few of those songs that will
take you all around the world and, hopefully, set your own visions alight” – Nic
Jones January 2019
Martin Simpson releases his new album "Home Recordings"
on 13 November and the latest single from the album is out today, find out
more below.
Martin
Simpson Home
Recording Out 13 November
Martin
Simpson’s next album was going
to be a live one. But the lockdown put paid to all that. Even so, this cloud
does have a silver lining.
And what a silver lining it is. Unable to play to audiences
(Martin can average over 100 gigs a year) or go into a recording studio, the
only solution was to record a new album at home.
Were it not for the gaggle of geese flying overhead (you can
hear them on ‘Lonesome Valley Geese’) and the birds happily tweeting on the
closing track, you perhaps wouldn’t know this wasn’t a studio album. Recorded
by his regular producer, now neighbour, Andy Bell, the aptly-named, ‘Home Recordings’
finds Martin singing and playing, literally amongst his beloved guitar and
banjo collection and out on his Peak District-facing porch.
Find the first two singles "October
Song" and "The
Times They Are A-Changin'"
“Martin is solo
throughout except for some sparingly used backing vocals and the sound of
Home Recordings somehow takes me back to when I first heard him playing as
support to Steeleye Span in the early 70s. I think this record will be close
to hand for quite some time.” - Folking.com
“This is an album to listen to over and over and which could only
really be improved upon had there been some interference from the cat.”
- Northern Sky (★★★★★ 5 stars)
““Home Recordings” is an unassuming title - but untold riches lie behind the
front door.”
- Rocking Magpie
Topic Records on Spotify
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Spotify listener, please consider following Topic Records,
Singer, songwriter and guitar virtuoso Martin Simpson will release his brand new studio album Rooted on August 30. Produced by Andy Bell and recorded in Sheffield and Oxfordshire, Rooted will be available on CD, LP and digital with the deluxe 2CD and deluxe digital versions including a bonus disc of instrumentals, Seeded.
Summing up the themes of his new album, Martin says: “The music and songs embrace nature and travel, mental health, real life stories, loss, politics and history… and the threads that bind all this together can be followed back a long way, to 1965 when I got my first guitar and started to soak up material and ideas at a very rapid rate.”
Rooted features an array of stellar guest musicians, including Nancy Kerr (fiddle and viola), Andy Cutting (melodeon and diatonic accordion), Liz Hanks (cello), John Smith (electric guitar and vocals), Ben Nicholls (string bass and electric bass guitar), Julie Matthews (vocals), Alan Barnes (clarinet), Max Simpson (vocals), Amy Smith (vocals), Chris While (vocals) and Tom A Wright (drums and percussion). Richard Hawley and Dom Flemons contribute backing vocals and bones respectively to first single ‘Neo’ (out 21st June). As well as vocals, Martin himself plays banjola, 5-string banjo, 6-string fretless banjo, electric bass guitar and electric and resonator guitars!
Deluxe Topic Treasures CD issue of the award-winning Topic album + 3 bonus tracks + 28 page booklet with new sleeve notes by acclaimed journalist/Sandy Denny biographer Mick Houghton + new intro by John Tams
Originally released in 2005, John Tams’ third and final album, ‘The Reckoning’ received produced a triple whammy at the following year’s BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards, winning Best Album, Best Traditional Track (for Bitter Withy) and Folk Singer of the Year.
Re-released in July as part of the popular Topic Treasures series, ‘The Reckoning’ is a masterful collection of traditional and self-composed material including a spell-binding reading of ‘The Bitter Withy,’ a powerful reworking of ‘A Man Of Constant Sorrow’ and a magnificient set of sea songs including ‘Pretty Nancy’ and ‘A Sailor’s Life.’
Topic celebrated its 80th birthday with style and aplomb at the Barbican Centre in London last Friday, 7th June.
A veritable who’s who of the folk world took to the stage to toast the oldest independent record label in the world, weaving their way through a vast back catalogue whose first seed was planted back in 1939!
Performers included Eliza and Martin Carthy, Chris Wood, Marry Waterson, Lisa Knapp and Gerry Diver, Olivia Chaney, Alasdair Roberts, Emily Portman, Sam Lee and Bernard Butler, Boss Morris and many more.
The Topic Records: Folk in Focus exhibition is on now at Cecil Sharp House [Free entry]and runs until 5 January 2020.
The exhibition features iconic photographs from the Topic Records archive focusing on the seminal artists who’ve helped shape contemporary folk music as we know it.
Featuring photographs by Brian Shuel, John Harrison, Judith Burrows, Dave Peabody, Elly Lucas, Eammon O’Doherty and George Van Win, the exhibition includes era-defining shots of Anne Briggs, Shirley & Dolly Collins, The Watersons, Nic Jones, June Tabor, Martin Simpson, Eliza and Martin Carthy, Peggy Seeger, Ewan MacColl and many more.
The Topic calendar is almost SOLD OUT, but we have a few copies left. This limited edition A3 size calendar, the first of its kind for the label, includes classic photographs of Anne Briggs, Shirley and Dolly Collins, The Watersons, Eliza Carthy, Martin Simpson, Ewan MacColl and Peggy Seeger, Davy Graham and June Tabor to name a few. Limited to 500 copies only worldwide.
