Friday, September 30, 7:30 Show (7 door): Martyn Joseph folk rocker extraordinaire from Wales. (tix $17.50, Now on Sale; drop by the store, or call 541-345-8986 to reserve)
“Martyn Joseph is a completely unique and mind-blowing artist. For one man and a guitar he creates a performance with a far-reaching sound that is energetic, compelling and passionate. Be it to (80) people or twenty thousand he blows the crowd away night after night…Compared to Bruce Springsteen, John Mayer, Bruce Cockburn and Dave Matthews…giving what thousands have described as the best live experience of their lives.” (from his bio). Winner of the 2018 Spirit of Folk Award from the International Folk Alliance.
Martyn Joseph
Martyn Joseph is a completely unique and mind blowing artist. Take everything you think you knowabout singer songwriters….and rip it up. For one man and a guitar he creates a performance with ahuge far-reaching sound that is energetic, compelling and passionate. Be it to two hundred peopleor twenty thousand, he blows the crowd away night after night. He 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.
Compared 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”
In 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. Concerned 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.”
There 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.
In 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.
He 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.
2018 saw him honoured with a ”Spirit of Folk” Award by Folk Alliance International in Kansas USA and he also received Fatea magazine’s “Lifetime Achievement Award” in the UK.
In January 2019, he released his critically acclaimed album Here Come The Young, of which Uncut magazine said “He’s never sounded more potent than he does here” and whose title track wasawarded “Best English Language Song” at the Wales Folk Awards.
Martyn 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.’
