Martin Simpson at the Rongovian Embassy

When: Sunday, May 3, 1998
9:00pm
Where: Rongovian Embassy to the United States
Main Street
Trumansburg, NY
How Much: probably not free

Acoustic guitar virtuoso Martin Simpson, who moved to Ithaca from England 10 years ago, and then on to California in 1992, will be making a brief stop here to perform at the Rongo on Sunday May 3rd at 9:00PM. Martin, who grew up in Lincolnshire in the Northeast of England, was an acoustic guitar prodigy in his teens, and had a lengthy career as a fixture of the British folk scene, frequently doing projects with members of Fairport Convention and Steeleye Span. He was perhaps best known as June Tabor's long-time accompanist.

Martin headed to the US in the late '80s to pursue his solo career, and has been steadily gaining in notoriety as a performer, recording artist, and teacher at the National Guitar Summer Workshop. Famous for his love of traditional American blues as well as British folk music, Martin switches idioms with alacrity at his shows.

Some of his recordings venture into unexplored cross-cultural territory. The BBC called his 1997 CD Music for the Motherless Child (Water Lily Acoustics CS-49), a duet with the Chinese pipa virtuoso Wu Man, "mesmerising and devastating".

Martin's latest CD, Cool & Unusual on Red House Records, features Martin on guitar and fretless banjo along with prominent performances by David Lindley, Kelly Joe Phelps, and the Malagasy band "Tarika Sammy".

Martin will be performing at the Rongo on Sunday May 3rd with his long-time bass player, Doug Robinson. All of Martin's various recordings, books, and videos are available by mail-order through Watershed Enterprises at 607-275-0997.

- Doug Robinson
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