Martyn Joseph

His first release under Grapevine featured the fourth track "Ballad of Richard Lewis", a homage to the Welsh labourer and hero better known as Dic Penderyn, who was sentenced to death after leading the Merthyr Rising of 1831.

The song would be later included in further albums (including the Thunder and Rainbows compilation, the Don't Talk About Love live album, and Evolved, as a re-recording in a different style) as "Dic Penderyn".

Martyn Joseph (born 15 July 1960) is a Welsh singer-songwriter whose music exhibits primarily a brand of Celtic and folk, while his songwriting is often focused on social lament or protest.

He has won that title four times and also played for the County of Glamorgan and in the British Youths and Amateur Championships in the 1980s.

Joseph remains a keen amateur golfer and plays with a handicap of four.

However, Joseph would gradually focus his career path on music.

Growing up, he participated in school eisteddfods and, at his own estimate, he had already written several songs by his early teens.

From independently releasing his first studio release, I'm Only Beginning in 1983, Joseph's career has spanned forty years.

Joseph began recording in 1983, releasing five albums over the 1980s, culminating in his 1989 self-financed An Aching and a Longing (Myrrh Records), which sold 30,000 copies and gained him a large enough following that he was subsequently signed to Sony Records.

He made his major label debut with Being There in 1992.

It was produced by Ben Wisch, to create more stripped-down arrangements.

Joseph worked musically with Pete Brookes, while collaborating with lyricist Stewart Henderson on many of the tracks.

A year after the release of Being There, Joseph recorded live versions of the songs featured on the album and released it under the title Undrugged.

His second and final release under Sony, the self-titled Martyn Joseph, was produced by Mick Glossop, whose previous work included albums with The Waterboys.

Following his first best-of compilation, he came out with his second live album, two volumes of recordings under the title Don't Talk About Love 1992 – 2002.

The first single from Martyn Joseph, "Talk About It in the Morning" co-written with Tom Robinson, was released in 1995 and reached the Top 50 in the UK Singles Chart.

In 1999, Joseph established his own label, Pipe Records, citing "creative freedom" and "complete control" as the main advantages granted him that were not possible working under other labels.

Drawing from possible past experiences with Sony, Joseph explains, "I'm not dependent on Robbie Williams' diary or Madonna's film schedule for when [my songs] get released."

Joseph began publishing work under a new medium, a news magazine entitled The Passport Queue, the name of which is taken from a line in the song "Everything in Heaven".

Subscribers of the magazine receive free annual CDs of rare recordings.

In his first release under Pipe Records, Far From Silent, Joseph explored the complications of fame and fortune, in the second track "Celebrity".

The eighth track, entitled "The Good in Me is Dead", written in the perspective of a Kosovo refugee in light of the Balkan atrocities, reflects Joseph's penchant for writing about social tragedies and injustice.

"The prime motive in the instant that I pick up the guitar is a selfish one," Joseph says.

"It's because I need to deal with the world. I'm in the world and it's horrible, and what can I do? I'm just getting this stuff out of my system as it were."

Between Far From Silent and his next LP, Joseph came out with several works, the first of which was a 2000 limited edition EP, The Shirley Sessions, which he worked on primarily during a tour with Shirley Bassey gone awry.

The next year, in 2001, Joseph compiled a two-disc best-of album entitled Thunder and Rainbows – The Best We Could Find comprising 31 of his previous favourites and two new songs.

Joseph's brief major label career produced four UK Top 75 singles total in the UK, including "Dolphins Make Me Cry (#34)", "Working Mother (#65)", "Please Sir (#43)" and "Talk About it in The Morning (#45)" Prior to 2003's Whoever It Was That Brought Me Here Will Have To Take Me Home, Being There and Martyn Joseph were the only albums of his to have been released in the United States.

After being dropped by Sony, he recorded two albums for the UK independent record label Grapevine: Full Colour Black and White and Tangled Souls.

In November 2003, Joseph released his second LP under Pipe Records, Whoever It Was That Brought Me Here Will Have To Take Me Home.

Soon thereafter, Joseph began a serious collaboration with Tom Robinson and Steve Knightley, whom he worked with extensively early in his career.

In 2004, he won the Best Male Artist Category in the BBC Welsh Music Awards.

Born in Penarth, Wales, Joseph Grew up as an avid golfer, having started to play at the age of 10.

At 15 years old, he was playing off a handicap of one, and at 17, he became the youngest ever winner of the Glamorganshire Golf Club Championship.

The result was the 2004 release, Faith, Folk and Anarchy, as well as an eventual live accompaniment, Faith, Folk & Anarchy Live.

The next year brought three more releases from Joseph.

In the midst of the controversial war in Iraq, Joseph's next album, Deep Blue, featured the highly political tracks "Yet Still This Will Not Be" and "How Did We End Up Here".

Joseph mused in an interview with a folk music website, "I bet, in his private moments alone, deep down, Tony Blair the person regrets what he did in Iraq".

The Bridgerow Sessions and Because We Can..., further collaborated on with Steve Knightley and Stewart Henderson respectively, rounded out the year.

A regular performer at the annual Greenbelt Festival in the United Kingdom, Joseph recorded his 2006 performance and released it as MJGB06.

The same year, he came out with his first live effort recorded on DVD, Martyn Joseph Live.