What a night! It started with a very late decision to attend - we were so lucky to get tickets following a cancellation, we were delayed by accidents in the snow down the local lanes, but managed to get in just after Martin started. Finding the last two adjacent seats in the theatre we were delighted to find ourselves sat next to Arthur and Linda and settled in to see how Martin Simpson sounded on his own. We have seen him several times before with Eric Bibb and in the Four Martins tour, but this was our first "all Simpson" experience, and boy was it an experience.
The audience was so attentive, the hush and lack of popping out to the bar was really noticeable as Martin went through his 2 sets. We missed most of "Louisiana 1916", but after one of his many stories, Martin played us "Bareback to Bullhassocks" and then did something that sounded akin to Robert Fripp, holding a device over the two or three top strings and playing slide on them, while picking the others, producing a marvelous ethereal sound I've not heard anywhere else, a tune that led into ""Just Can't Keep From Cryin' Sometimes" by Blind Willy Johnson. I just said "played us" because this was such an intimate performance that it felt like Martin was playing just for us, I wrote down words like deft, light, atmospheric, we were all transfixed.
Returning to all out picking, we got "Buckets" and then, after a good word for the BBC Radio Ballads series and a with touch of concern for the animals, "Granmore Hare" followed by a great version of "Matty Groves". We joked later that Martin Simpson plays better tunes when he is just tuning up (which happens a lot) than most of can manage at all, and so after more tuning, he finished the first half with "The Flying Cloud".
Its obvious that Martin Simpson spends a lot of time with his two guitars, and that he is very intimate with them, talking to them and making many minor adjustments, some even mid-song, and his playing reflects this time and effort - its just fabulous - Gill commented on his ability to weight each note in the chord and allow some notes to sustain longer than others, a truly gifted performer with the guitar, and his voice has several different identities that allow him to give an added authenticity to his Southern U.S.A. songs alongside his more native folk songs.
In part two there was talk of still getting culture shock when on the Isle of Lewes followed by one of my favourites "When First I Came to Caledonia" and then an up tempo, "Been on the Job Too Long" and the moving "Icarus".
Martin exhorted folk who play guitar to try something new every day, then proceeded to play a tune he wrote while doing just that, with the de-Goded hymn "For Love and for Valour" inserted in the middle. "Creeping Jane" was next from his CD "Kind Letters", then "Pretty Sarah", followed by Richard Thompson's "This is a Strange Affair". To close the second half, we were told that the last 2 or 3 songs would all be from "The South" and that it's all true - and so we heard "Barratt Street Stroll" - an instrumental based on the way folks walk down there, "Easy Money" about a guy who's funeral Martin says he attended by accident and sounded to me like a banjo tune, and finally "Love Never Dies".
By way of an encore, there was "Fair Annie/Lord Thomas" and Martin took his bows and vanished backscene of this tiny theatre until we had all stopped clapping! It was quite a night -intense and pleasing - watching a master of his craft perform at such close quarters is a privilege indeed. I have heard mutterings in the past about Martin Simpson being a touch superior, but as we left the venue, there he was in the sub-zero weather, helping drivers navigate out of the car park that was now an ice-rink.
Highly recommended.
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