MARTYN JOSEPH | LIVE REVIEW
St David’s Hall, Cardiff, Tue 28 Jan
The irony of the situation could not have been lost on Cardiff-born singer-songwriter Martyn Joseph. As he opened his set at St David’s Hall with the rebel rousing Here Come The Young, looking round the audience the majority of them were anything but. What they were, though, was all ears.
The song’s rallying call to the next generation to “save the day’ is a hopeful bid to the future and sums up the positivity that Joseph inspires lyrically and musically – despite being what most would call a ‘protest singer’. He refers to his guitar several times as his “cheap psychiatrist”, and he has used his instrument well over his 35-year career to pen poignant songs on injustices past and present. He jokes that the Melody Maker once said he “made Leonard Cohen seem like Julie Andrews”. I disagree: going to a Martyn Joseph gig will not send you into a soporific stupor; his energetic guitar form and often brutally honest and self-disclosing delivery is hard not to respond to. The sentiment is Billy Bragg, but the delivery is more Springsteen.
No surprise, then, that Joseph’s latest album is a rerecording of songs by another American guitar man, Phil Ochs, who wrote a number of the more meaningful protest songs of the 1960s. A handful are performed tonight, including the jaded but anthemic I’m Not Marchin’ Anymore – its relevance hanging heavy in the air. Then there were plenty of Joseph’s old favourites: Cardiff Bay, I Searched For You and Dic Penderyn – his haunting homage to the Merthyr activist wrongly hanged only steps away from where we were sat. “Thunder rolled and the rain came down St Mary Street. But on this day thousands stood their ground. A silent crowd who’s heads are bowed in helplessness. Bid farewell.”
Emotional, often dark, but still hopeful. Martyn Joseph is still marchin’ and certainly knows how to bring it all back home.
words CLAIRE MAHONEY photos GARETH GRIFFITHS