Recorded in Santa Cruz in 1997, this album won the 1998 AFIM (Association For Independent Music) Indy Award for Best Acoustic Instrumental Release in the USA - the independent equivalent of a Grammy. It is an exploration of the relationship between the Afro-American and Northern European music and features Martin on fretless banjo, electric and acoustic slide guitar and guitar, with stellar guests, Kelly Joe Phelps, David Lindley and members of the great Malagasy band, Tarika Sammy.

‘Takes deep breath, reaches for the dictionary of superlatives...
Remember 1989’s Leaves of Life, when Mr Simpson stopped singing for a CD and blew musicians away all over the place with his achingly sensitive guitar versions of airs and songs? That album spawned many Simpson-clones whose efforts occasionally pass (generally fleetingly) through these pages. A second such CD, When I Was On Horseback (1991), included some jollier pieces and was equally stunning. Since then, Martin’s returned to his more diverse repertoire, his singing has caught up with his playing and this territory seemed to have been a temporary phase. Not so.

Here are 15 purely instrumental gems and you will not find better, nowhere. Some are well known (Rose of Allendale, Plains of Waterloo) and some obscure. The selection is more varied than back in 1989 and there is more of a supporting cast (two other slide players, bass, percussion, assorted stringed things).

However, the mix is dominated by Simpson’s extraordinary fingerstyle and slide guitar and 5-string banjo. I hear voices, as the instrument’s phrasing hints at the words of the song-based tracks and the sleeve notes name-check June Tabor, Barry Dransfield, Nic Jones and Anne Briggs. Martin’s always been clear about the influence of great singers on his playing and it sticks out a mile here. Highlights? There are 15!

The slightly sinister low-strung banjo on Deep Blue Sea, the unlikely pairing of slide guitar and the Plains Of Waterloo (fits like a glove) and the wide open spaces in Lord Jamie Douglas stand out as my highlights today – and it’ll be something else tomorrow.

Apologies for the purple prose. I wish I could find something negative to say to give this review some credibility, but I can’t … Well, I guess there’s always that silly wee beard."

FOLK ROOTS – NOVEMBER 1997
By Alan Murray