• Artist: Martin Simpson
• Album: Trails & Tribulations
• Genre: Folk, Americana, SInger-Songwriter
• Released: 1st September, 2017
• Record Label: Topic Records
• Tracks: 13 (+6 Deluxe edition)
• Formats: Standard & Deluxe CD, Digital Download & Standard Vinyl.

World-renowned guitarist, singer and songwriter Martin Simpson releases his 20th solo album  ‘Trails & Tribulations’ on September 1st, 2017 via Topic Records. The new studio album is his first new solo work since 2013’s critically acclaimed ‘Vagrant Stanzas. 

‘Trails & Tribulations’ is a collection of songs about nature, about travels and about real life stories. There are traditional songs, poems and contemporary songs by great writers, and songs that I had to write because nobody else knew what I wanted to say. I travel, I learn songs, I write and try to get better at the skills required for me to do my job. I look at the world as I pass by, on the road, out of the train window, or as I stop and pay close attention to the square foot under my nose. There is so much to see and to hear and to inspire and to try and understand. I had a huge amount of fun playing and recording these songs, using different instruments, different noises, old friends and new ones, all of whom brought so much to the mix.    Martin Simpson, April 2017.

Produced and engineered by the renowned Andy Bell, ‘Trails & Tribulations’ features some of Martin’s most innovative playing yet, showcasing his virtuosity on a variety of instruments including acoustic guitars, resonator guitars, lap steel guitar, electric guitars, 5 string banjo and ukulele.

The album also includes a host of excellent guest musicians including Ben Nicholls (Double bass and electric bass guitars), Toby Kearney (drums and percussion), Nancy Kerr (fiddle and viola), Andy Cutting (diatonic accordion and melodeon), John Smith (electric guitar and backing vocals), Helen Bell (strings), Amy Newhouse-Smith (backing vocals) and for the first time on record his daughter Molly Simpson on vocals.

Hand in hand with his long and storied solo career, Martin has been central to seminal collaborations like The Full English, The Elizabethan Sessions and Simpson Cutting Kerr. He has worked with a dazzling array of artists from across the musical spectrum: Jackson Browne, Martin Taylor, June Tabor, Richard Hawley, Bonnie Raitt, Danny Thompson, David Hidalgo, Danú, Richard Thompson and Dom Flemons, to mention a few. He is consistently named as one of the very finest acoustic, fingerstyle and slide guitar players in the world and is the most nominated musician in the history of the BBC Folk Awards, with a remarkable 31 nods. A true master of his art.

As a small taster of the new album we have included the audio of Martin's new cover of Jackson C. Frank’s ‘Blues Run The Game’.