Martha Tilston

Martha Tilston

Having taken a break from live performing last year to have a baby, MarthaTilston has now completed a new album, Lucy & the Wolves, released inthe UK on April 26th on her own label, Squiggly Records. This latest albumis a stunningly beautiful selection of 11 songs, all written by Martha apartfrom the traditional "Searching For Lambs".

Martha Tilston is a captivating performer, an enchanting singer-songwriter blessed with a gloriously clear and seductive voice.

Throughout Lucy & the Wolves, Martha expresses herself in her trademark, endearingly direct, poetic manner, putting forward her philosophy of life, and examining relationships in an accessible, universal way. Opening with the exquisite "The Cape", a wonderfully sparse love song featuring Martha on piano, "Rockpools", that follows, more typically finds her playing acoustic guitar and is highlighted, like many of the songs on the album by Jon Thorne's brilliant double bass playing. The arrangements are delicate but subtly understated, the musicianship - featuring members of her backing band The Woods - is faultless - a mesh of violins, viola, cello and, unusually trombone. Maggie Boyle adds flute and a vocal harmony to "Wild Swimming"; "Searching For Lambs" is unaccompanied, recorded in a Somerset wood with just a little help from a few neighbouring crows.

It is hardly surprising that Martha is such an original and accomplished performer. She grew up surrounded by music, art, poetry and drama, always encouraged to express herself through the creative arts. Her father is accomplished singer-songwriter Steve Tilston; stepmother the glorious London-Irish folk singer Maggie Boyle; her mother Naomi is a talented artist, while stepfather Frank is a theatre director.

The various creative influences combined. Hearing folk luminaries such as Bert Jansch, Ralph McTell and John Renbourn playing in the kitchen with her dad, and learning traditional songs from Maggie Boyle formed the background to Marthas love of folk music. Having inherited her mums artistic talents, Martha paints the artwork for her albums.

It was acting, though, that first drew the young Martha and she studied at drama school, and appeared at the Edinburgh Festival, before deciding that the call of music could not be denied. She formed the duo Mouse with guitarist Nick Marshall, releasing two albums, Helicopter Trees (2000) and Mouse Tales (2001), and becoming a firm cult favourite on the underground festival circuit.

At the end of 2002 Martha went solo, her first outing supporting Damien Rice on a tour of Ireland. A lo-fi release, Rolling, mostly sold through word-of-mouth and at gigs, followed in 2003.

Steadily gigging, and adored by an ever-growing fan base, in early 2005, Martha released her first full-scale album, Bimbling, on her own label Squiggly an enchanting and intimate selection of songs, the tracks interspersed with ambient soundscapes from summer music festivals. The whole project was funded by selling the original canvases she had painted to provide the artwork for the CD. In 2006, a free download album, Ropeswing, followed, the first to feature her backing band The Woods.

Ever brave in her songwriting and never compromising her principles of independence when questioning and confronting social issues and drawing attention to causes close to her heart, this album featured Corporations which highlights the immorality of corporate culture and relentless materialism. She also lent her name to the Big Issues Peace Not War compilation album, contributing The Saddest Game, written about the plight of child soldiers in Africa, and in line with her environmental concerns has more recently played at Climate Camp in London.

It was in 2007, though, with the critically acclaimed Of Milkmaids &Architects, that Martha began to come to the attention of a more mainstreamaudience, and in that year she was nominated for best new act at the BBCFolk Awards. The album included Artificial, a song that struck a chordwith so many of her audience, telling of the frustrations of working in anoffice and dreaming of an escape route

It was this song that formed one of the central points of her imaginative,Arts Council funded Into The Woods tour, where her dramatic and musicalbackgrounds combined. With inventive stage settings, Martha managed to bringthe woodland and campfire experience vividly to life in venues throughoutthe country.

Since then, Martha has released an EP, Till I Reach The Sea (2008),appeared on Womans Hour and Loose Ends, been guest vocalist on the trackPop Art Blue which she contributed to Zero 7s latest album Yeah Ghost,toured Australia, and the UK, as well as headlining various prestigiousFestivals, Martha also opened the Acoustic Stage at Glastonbury. Despite hermain stage appearances, Martha continues to adore small, underground,alternative festivals where she will still no doubt be found playingunannounced sets around the campfire at three in the morning.

Martha Tilston Discography:2010 Lucy and the Wolves - Squiggly Records through Proper2008 til I Reach the Sea Squiggly Records EP download only2007 Of Milkmaids and Architects - Squiggly Records through Proper2006 Ropeswing a free downloadable album gently circulating the planet2004 Bimbling Squiggly Records, distributed through Proper2003 Rolling -only available to download

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