Sparking Performance

A longtime friend of the Netherlands, Alfred Valstar, alerted me to Martyn Joseph aufmerkam. Because his connoisseurship is almost impressive, and because I never got a useless recommendation from him, I heard myself into the three decades spanning work of the rough Welshman. To get to the point: "Do not Talk About Love" is one of the best live albums, which I have ever heard in the singer / songwriter division - and I recommend it with pleasure.

This is not to easy listening, though Martyn Joseph has certainly placed a few pieces in the top 50 of the UK charts ("Dolphins Make Me Cry", "Working Mother", "Being There" and "Let's Talk About It In The Morning "). There it is more about the world in which he lives, deal with it and to cope. This test sometimes like him have plunged in melancholy and sadness, but the album stahlt especially strength and hope of life.

One of the highlights is because even the ballad "Dic Penderyn". The recession of 1829 had the Welsh town of Merthyr Tydfil out into a debt crisis. In 1831, the beginning of June it here to a workers' uprising, triggered by the attempt of Coal Mine Owner, to pay wages partly in the form of goods. On June 1, about 10,000 insurgents almost brought the entire city under their control. Then attacked on June 3, a military. Richard Lewis, better known as Dic Penderyn, was tried and hanged. He is still regarded as one of the great British martyr.

"One Of Us", written by guitarist Eric Bazilian of the mainstream band "The Hooters", as amended by Joan Osborne 1995, no. 4 was among the Billboard songs of the year. I do not think much of these rankings but I am glad that Bazilian, had such great success with an effort to imagine the existence of God as to everyday life as possible. I've heard the song in many different versions, but Martyn Joseph is a front that is closest to me, because they are so not therefore come sweetly and kitsch.

Given the large number of publications by Martyn Joseph one must not necessarily first come across this double CD. But here he pulls out all its pearls on a chain. Joseph is one who needs the closeness to the audience. The pieces seem to lengths more present than in its studio version. Granted, you have to cover the purchase - if you still get hold of a copy - draw very deep into their pockets. But this music is timeless, it loses over the years none of their significance and their value.