Prodigal Son (Martin Simpson album)

Last updated
Prodigal Son
Prodigal Son (MS).jpg
Studio album by
Released2007
Label Topic
Martin Simpson chronology
Kind Letters
(2005)
Prodigal Son
(2007)
True Stories
(2009)

Prodigal Son is a 2007 album recorded by the English guitarist Martin Simpson and released on the Topic Records label. The album won the Best Album award at the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards 2008 and the track Never Any Good won the Best Original Song award and is included on the 2008 Folk Awards album issued by Proper Music Distribution. [1]

Martin Simpson British folk guitarist and singer

Martin Stewart Simpson is an English folk singer, guitarist and songwriter. His music reflects a wide variety of influences and styles, rooted in Britain, Ireland, America and beyond.

Topic Records is a British folk music label, which played a major role in the second British folk revival. It began as an offshoot of the Workers' Music Association in 1939, making it the oldest independent record label in the world.

BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards award

The BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards celebrate outstanding achievement during the previous year within the field of folk music, with the aim of raising the profile of folk and acoustic music. The awards have been given annually since 2000 by British radio station BBC Radio 2.

The accompanying book to the Topic Records 70 year anniversary boxed set Three Score and Ten lists this as one of the classic albums. [2] :94 the track Never Any Good is track 7 on the fifth CD in the boxed set.

<i>Three Score and Ten</i> 2009 box set by Various Artists

Three Score and Ten: A Voice to the People is a multi-CD box set album issued by Topic Records in 2009 to celebrate 70 years as an independent British record label.

Track listing

Reference to folk song indexes will be used where identified. These references are from the three major numbering schemes, the Roud Numbers, Child Ballad Numbers originating from Francis James Child and the Laws Numbers from the George Malcolm Laws numbering system.

The Roud Folk Song Index is a database of around 250,000 references to nearly 25,000 songs collected from oral tradition in the English language from all over the world. It is compiled by Steve Roud, a former librarian in the London Borough of Croydon. Roud's Index is a combination of the Broadside Index and a "field-recording index" compiled by Roud. It subsumes all the previous printed sources known to Francis James Child and includes recordings from 1900 to 1975. Until early 2006 the index was available by a CD subscription; now it can be found online on the Vaughan Williams Memorial Library website, maintained by the English Folk Dance and Song Society (EFDSS). A partial list is also available at List of folk songs by Roud number.

Francis James Child American folklorist

Francis James Child was an American scholar, educator, and folklorist, best known today for his collection of English and Scottish ballads now known as the Child Ballads. Child was Boylston professor of rhetoric and oratory at Harvard University, where he produced influential editions of English poetry. In 1876 he was named Harvard's first Professor of English, a position which allowed him to focus on academic research. It was during this time that he began work on the Child Ballads.

George Malcolm Laws was a scholar of traditional British and American folk song.

  1. "Batchelors Hall" (Dick Connette, Roud 385) 4:45
  2. "Pretty Crowing Chicken" (Trad. Roud179;Child 248) 2:53
  3. "Lakes Of Champlain" (Trad.) 4:36
  4. "She Slips Away" (Martin Simpson) 3:18
  5. "The Granemore Hare" (Trad. Roud 2993) 5:55
  6. "Mother Love" (Martin Simpson) 1:52
  7. "Little Musgrave" (Trad. Roud 52;Child 81) 5:54
  8. "A Love Letter" (Martin Simpson) 3:14
  9. "Duncan & Brady" (Trad. Roud 4177; Laws I9) 2:41
  10. "Never Any Good" (Martin Simpson) 5:23
  11. "Good Morning Mr Railroad Man" (Trad.) 3:27
  12. "Louisiana 1927" (Randy Newman) 4:19
  13. "La Rivolte" (Martin Simpson) 1:52
  14. "Andrew Lammie" (Trad. Roud 98; Child 233) 9:18
  15. "Kit's Tune; When A Knight Won His Spurs" (Martin Simpson; Public Domain) 5:18

Related Research Articles

Martin Carthy English musician

Martin Carthy MBE is an English folk singer and guitarist who has remained one of the most influential figures in British traditional music, inspiring contemporaries such as Bob Dylan and Paul Simon and later artists such as Richard Thompson since he emerged as a young musician in the early days of the folk revival.

June Tabor British singer

June Tabor is an English folk singer known for her solo work as well as for her earlier collaborations with Maddy Prior and with the Oyster Band.

<i>Martin Carthy</i> (album) 1965 studio album by Martin Carthy

Martin Carthy is the debut solo album by English folk musician Martin Carthy, originally released in 1965 by Fontana Records and later re-issued by Topic Records. The album features Dave Swarbrick playing fiddle or mandolin on a number of the tracks. Swarbrick was not headlined on the album for contractual reasons as he was with the Ian Campbell Folk Group at the time with permission granted by Transatlantic Records

Norma Waterson folk musician

Norma Christine Waterson is an English musician, best known as one of the original members of The Watersons, a celebrated English traditional group. Other members of the group included her brother Mike Waterson and sister Lal Waterson, a cousin John Harrison, and in later incarnations of the group her husband Martin Carthy.

Karine Polwart Scottish folk singer

Karine Polwart is a Scottish singer-songwriter. She writes and performs music with a strong folk and roots feel, her songs dealing with a variety of issues from alcoholism to genocide. She has been most recognised for her solo career, winning three awards at the BBC Folk Awards in 2005, and was previously a member of Malinky and Battlefield Band.

John Tams British folk musician, music poroducer and actor

John Tams is an English actor, singer, songwriter, composer and musician.

The Voice of the People is an anthology of folk songs produced by Topic Records containing recordings of traditional singers and musicians from England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales.

Nancy Kerr British singer

Nancy Kerr is an English folk musician and songwriter, specialising in the fiddle and singing. Born in London, she now lives in Sheffield. She is the daughter of London-born singer-songwriter Sandra Kerr and Northumbrian piper Ron Elliott. She was the 2015 BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards "Folk Singer of the Year".

<i>Shearwater</i> (album) 1972 studio album by Martin Carthy

Shearwater is an album by Martin Carthy, released in 1972 on the Pegasus label as PEG12. It was re-released on vinyl in 1973/74 by Mooncrest as CREST25. The album was re-issued on CD in 1995, by Mooncrest, as CRESTCD 008 and then again, in March 2005 by Castle Music, as CMQCD1096.

<i>Righteousness and Humidity</i> album by Martin Simpson

Righteousness And Humidity is a 2003 album recorded by the English guitarist Martin Simpson and released on the Topic Records label.

<i>The Bird in the Bush (Traditional Erotic Songs)</i> 1966 studio album by A. L. Lloyd, Anne Briggs and Frankie Armstrong

The Bird in the Bush is a folk album by A. L. Lloyd, Anne Briggs and Frankie Armstrong, released by Topic Records in 1966. The album is a collection of traditional erotic British folk songs, although the album's content is in the form of euphemism and metaphor, like "sport and play". The album was re-released in 1996 by Topic on CD with 5 additional tracks taken from other Topic folk albums of the same period. The album is now available as a download

Lucy Ward (musician) British musician

Lucy Victoria Ward is a British singer-songwriter from Derby. She performs, with a voice described as expressive and powerful, traditional English folk songs as well as her own material. Three of her albums, Adelphi Has to Fly, Single Flame and I Dreamt I Was a Bird, have been critically acclaimed and have each received four-starred reviews in the British national press.

<i>Out of the Cut</i> (Martin Carthy album) 1982 studio album by Martin Carthy

Out of the Cut is an album by Martin Carthy, released in 1982. It was re-issued by Topic Records on CD in 1994.

"The Banks of Sweet Primroses", "The Banks of the Sweet Primroses", "Sweet Primroses", "As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning", "As I Rode Out" or "Stand off, Stand Off" is an English folk song. It was very popular with traditional singers in the south of England, and has been recorded by many singers and groups influenced by the folk revival that began in the 1950s.

<i>A Cut Above</i> 1980 studio album by June Tabor

A Cut Above is a folk album by June Tabor and Martin Simpson released in 1980 on Topic Records, catalogue number 12TS410. The album was re-released on CD in UK on Topic Records in 1989 and was released on Green Linnet in the US in 1992.

References

  1. "Mainly Norfolk BBC radio 2 Folk Awards Album Details" . Retrieved 22 February 2015.
  2. Three Score and Ten Accompanying Book