martin simpson at colston hall

Last night was my SECOND concert at Colston Hall in less than a week. Don’t worry, this doesn’t mark a new extravagant lifestyle or sudden wealth… simply how it turned out when I booked three concerts some months ago.

Martin Simpson IS an amazing musician – probably the best (non-classical) guitarist I’ve ever seen. I was sitting in the second row last night and became completely mesmerised by watching his right hand as he played the instrument (am I really that sad?)… he seemed to use ALL his fingers – and I don’t mean just “strumming”!
He played for a total of two hours in two sets. He’d lived in America (California and New Orleans) for a number of years and the first set included a fair amount of “American folk” (which isn’t really my cup-of-tea); the second set included much more familiar “traditional English” songs and was simply stunning.
A musical genius and a complete master of his craft.
PS: This might seem a slightly strange observation, but I noticed that probably 75% of the audience was male (much higher than normal, in my experience). Why was this, I wonder? Is guitar-playing a particularly “bloke” thing? Just asking!