Search - Martin Simpson :: Grinning in Your Face

Folk/Rock's Best-Kept Secret

John Gilman | New York | 01/28/2000

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Martin Simpson's 1985 release, "Sad or High Kicking" is one of the great high water marks of the last twenty-five years of popular music. Well-received in the folk circles of England, it has made nary a ripple since its release in the over-saturated American music market, having only in the last six months found its way to CD. And yet, despite its obscurity, it stands out as one of the great artistic accomplishments of its genre. From the first notes of the lyrical "Jazzman" (best-known in the hands of Tom Rush) that opens the recording, with Martin on steel guitar (as well as acoustic) layering the song with atmosphere reminiscent of Ben Keith on Neil Young's "Harvest", it is abundantly clear that the listener is in for one of those musical carpet rides that suspends time and space. The extraordinary virtuosity on the guitar that Martin is best known for is all over this recording, and yet, unlike many other "guitar heroes", the technique never intrudes upon the inherent beauty of the melodies Martin has chosen to include. And these are hauntingly beautiful songs, from the soulful Randy Newman masterpiece "Living Without You" to the little-known twin gems of songwriter Anne Lister: "Moth" and "Icarus". Throughout the recording, Martin's stunning playing is firmly embedded in the lines of each song, filling them with a beautiful urgency that matches his superb singing. The mood rises and falls throughout, as one song flows into the next, each with its own distinct voice, and yet part of a greater whole. The album reaches its apogee on the magical "Let It Be Me", where the amazingly beautiful finger-picking unfolds slowly and evocatively, allowing the intensity of the feeling to build long before the lyrics enter, and with the music rising and falling to match the emotional longing of love's first faltering steps of which the song sings. Martin's voice is superb throughout the recording, but is nowhere better than here, with the uncertainty of early love poignantly expressed, as the guitar plaintively ebbs and flows. As the words give out, the guitar again reaches in, almost reluctant to give up this longing without one more urgent call to beauty, to truth, to love as it should be. To music as it should be. In pondering over the relative lack of commercial success that "Sad or High Kicking" has realized, I am struck by the thought that this is simply a masterpiece that arrived at the wrong time. The singer/songwriter idiom that has witnessed a renaissance in the last half dozen years was still a fantasy in 1985, with other more brazen musical styles in the spotlight. It is easy to imagine this recording being released in 1965 or 1975 or 1995 to wildly applauding fans. What is hard to imagine is my rather hefty collection of music without this recording- which remains fresh, powerful and profound through many, many sittings. The legacy of rock and folk music will leave many a masterpiece to the history of our times. Someday from the distance of time forgotten, "Sad or High Kicking" may well find itself included at the very top of the lists. Until that day, let yourself in on a secret."