About Martyn Joseph
Martyn Joseph is a Welsh singer-songwriter whose music exhibits primarily a brand of Celtic and folk, while his songwriting is often focussed on social lament or protest. From independently releasing his first studio release, I'm Only Beginning, in 1983, Joseph's career has spanned forty years. 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. 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.
Joseph began recording in 1983, releasing five albums in the 1980s, culminating in his 1989 self-financed An Aching and a Longing , 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. 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.
Joseph's brief major label career produced four UK Top 75 singles total in the UK, including "Dolphins Make Me Cry ", "Working Mother ", "Please Sir " and "Talk About it in The Morning " 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. 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 as "Dic Penderyn".
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