September 2014

One small step for Word In Your Ear, one giant stride for Monday nights in the pub

September 23, 2014 David Hepworth 0

Last night’s show was our best yet. Thanks to the people at the Islington we managed to get the visuals working and so we we could put on […]

Stevie Nicks biographer Zoe Howe added to our Ben Watt live podcast recording

September 13, 2014 David Hepworth 0

We’re delighted to say that Zoe Howe‘s joining us at our next Word In Your Ear Podcast recording at the Islington on September 22nd. She’ll be […]

A Quiet Word with Ben Watt at the Islington

September 8, 2014 David Hepworth 0

Ben Watt’s worn a variety of hats in the last thirty years: half of Everything But The Girl, solo artist, deejay, producer, club owner and […]

Word In Your Ear

David Hepworth, Mark Ellen and chums cast an occasionally jaundiced eye over the goings-on in the worlds of music and entertainment.

Martin Simpson got backstage when he was 15 and met Jimmy Reed and Big Joe Williams and it changed his life forever. He’s been on the folk circuit ever since, still at the top of his game and with the wealth of knowledge and experience reflected in this extremely entertaining podcast. His ‘Some Kind Of Jubilee’ album celebrates 50 years since his first record and he’s on tour in September. And talks to us here about …

… his operatic Dad born in the 19th Century

… the message carved with a knife on the door of the Bodmin Trad Music Club

… hearing Paul Robeson aged four and thinking “I want to make people cry for a living”

… ‘60s folk circuit snobbery and its disdain for “foreign songs”

… signing Big Joe Williams’ walking stick in a space between Bob Dylan and Joan Baez

… memories of Alex Campbell, Matin Carthy, Dave & Jo Ann Kelly and “that swarthy bunch of lunatics from Hull, the Watersons”

… the Nun & Ice Cream Cone, the Frog & Afterbirth: imaginary pub venues cooked up with June Tabor

… being managed by Tony Secunda, “an extremely unpleasant human being”

… “the only damage you can do to a folk song is to not sing it”

… supporting Steeleye Span and the night cash rained from the heavens

… Don’t Think Twice It’s All Right, These Days by Jackson Browne, Mississippi John Hurt and other songs that never let you down onstage

… second-lining at a New Orleans jazz funeral: “the slow drag and the racing return”

… and how folk songs travel abroad and evolve.

Order copies of ‘Some Kind Of Jubilee’ here: https://martinsimpsonmusic.com/pre-order-the-new-album/

Martin Simpson tickets here: https://martinsimpsonmusic.com/

Help us to keep The Longest Continuous Conversation In Rock’n’Roll going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear

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