Martyn Joseph
Wil-Mar Center, Madison, WI 4/29/2004

In February 2003, I caught a glimpse of Martyn Joseph at the National Folk Alliance conference in Nashville, Tennessee. He played one of the main showcases but they only last about 20 minutes. Still, it was enough to interest me. When you go to a lot of shows, there's not a lot of performances that stick with you in the weeks and months afterwards. His did. I recently read where he won an award in Wales, where he is from, and thought I'd email a friend from his record label to see what's going on with Martyn. I was fortunate enough to find out that he was going to be in Madison the next night.

Martyn Joseph has been compared to Bruce Springsteen, Phil Ochs and Mark Knopfler. For the Irish I would say he compares nearest to Luka Bloom. He's labeled as a "Welsh labor/social activist singer" which is a great fit for Madison! He is truly a gifted singer songwriter. While the music and the song are important to him it is very clear that the message or the emotion of the lyrics is of a higher priority. He's been around a while and is just as comfortable bantering with the audience as he is performing. At this concert (a free one) two ladies in the front row had papers strewn all over their table and seemed to be writing on them. Martyn couldn't resist asking them what they could possibly be doing. It turned out they were teachers correcting their student's papers. I know many performers who would have found this highly offensive. Instead Martyn took it as an opportunity to show his appreciation for teachers and his great disdain for all the new "Testing and Bureaucracy" in schools which only hampers the teachers from doing their jobs. He is great and maybe best at the protest song, but he offers so much more… Passion. You do have to be alert at his shows. He talks very fast. He's got a great sense of humor which I wish he would show more of.

Opening for Martyn and playing with him on one song was Lil Rev. He's a great talent on a myriad of instruments and it's on these instruments that most people know him. His voice seems to have grown in the last few years. I think he's getting out more and, as a solo performer, songs become more important. He's always been a wealth of musical information and uses this in his course that he teaches at UW-Milwaukee. My one critique would be that he needs to sell this information more convincingly. It seems over-rehearsed and not natural. Still you're bound to learn some musical tidbit at one of his shows.

Thanks to the Madison Folk Music Society for putting on a great show!

Barry Stapleton, Director - Ward Irish Music Archives