Martin Simpson was born in
Scunthorpe, Lincolnshire, England on 5 May 1953. He took an early interest in music, learning to play the guitar and banjo and performing at local folk clubs. In 1970, he dropped out of
John Leggott College to become a full-time musician. In 1976, he recorded his first solo album
Golden Vanity. and blends western and Chinese improvisational approaches, although five of its six tracks come from British or US traditions. In a similar vein was
Kambara Music in Native Tongues with
David Hidalgo (from
Los Lobos) and violinist Viji Krishnan, a mix of Hindu and contemporary songs. Not until 1999 did he record several of his own compositions on
Bootleg USA. It was then, along with Jessica Radcliffe, that he co-founded a record label called "High Bohemia". During his 1994 visit to the UK, he recorded
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 English traditional folk songs. 2003 saw the release of
Righteousness 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. This recording was a nominee for BBC folk awards album of the year in 2004. Simpson won the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards in 2004 in the category of Best Musician. This was followed 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. In 2007 Simpson released
Prodigal Son. The 2008
BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards voted it as best album. The
fRoots critics poll voted it as the 7th best new album of 2007. It is a mixture of traditional songs and Simpson originals, the highlights of which possess a distinctly southern American flavor. Jackson Browne, Kate Rusby and Kellie While guest star here. In December 2007 he performed on
Later... with Jools Holland. Simpson 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. Performances of note to the general public include a 2007 appearance on
Jools Holland's BBC show and a half-hour set at
the Proms on 20 July 2008 broadcast on BBC4. In 2015, Simpson released
Murmurs (Topic) with Andy Cutting and Nancy Kerr. In October 2016, Simpson collaborated with
Dom Flemons (formerly of the
Carolina Chocolate Drops) to release
A Selection of Ever Popular Favourites. He released
Trails & Tribulations in 2017, featuring 'Blues Run the Game', by Jackson C Frank, and an acclaimed version of the traditional song "
Reynardine". ==Awards and recognition==