Martyn Joseph
Encyclopedia
Martyn Joseph is a Welsh
singer-songwriter
whose music exhibits primarily a brand of Celtic
and folk
, while his songwriting is often focused on social lament or protest. From independently releasing his first studio release, I'm Only Beginning in 1983, to his latest 2010 album, Under Lemonade Skies, Joseph's career has spanned twenty-six years and three different labels – Sony, Grapevine and his own Pipe Records. In 2004, he won the Best Male Artist Category in the BBC
Welsh Music Awards.
, Joseph grew up as an avid golf
er, having started to play at the age of 10. At 15 years old, he was playing off a handicap of one, and at 17, he became the youngest ever winner of the Glamorganshire Golf Club Championship. He has won that title four times and also played for the County of Glamorgan and in the British Youths and Amateur Championships in the 1980s. Joseph remains a keen amateur golfer and plays with a handicap of four. However, Joseph would gradually focus his career path on music. Growing up, he participated in school eisteddfods and, at his own estimate, he had already written several songs by his early teens.
in 1983, releasing 5 albums over the 80's, culminating in his 1989 self-financed An Aching And A Longing (Myrrh Records), which sold 30,000 copies and gained him a large enough following that he was subsequently signed to Sony Records. He made his major label debut with Being There in 1992. It was produced by Ben Wisch, to create more stripped-down arrangements. Joseph worked musically with Pete Brookes, while collaborating with lyricist Stewart Henderson on many of the tracks. A year after the release of Being There, Joseph recorded live versions of the songs featured on the album and released it under the title Undrugged.
His second and final release under Sony was the self-titled Martyn Joseph was produced by Mick Glossop, whose previous work included albums with The Waterboys
. The first single under Martyn Joseph, 'Talk about it in the morning' co-written with Tom Robinson
, came out on May 8, 1997 and reached the Top 50 charts in the UK.
Joseph's brief major label career produced five Top 50 singles
total in the UK
, including "Dolphins Make Me Cry", "Working Mother", "Being There" and "Let's Talk About It In The Morning." Prior to 2003's Whoever It Was That Brought Me Here Will Have To Take Me Home, Being There and Martyn Joseph were the only albums of his to have been released in the United States
.
After being dropped by Sony, he recorded two albums for the UK independent record label
Grapevine: Full Colour Black and White and Tangled Souls. His first release under Grapevine featured the fourth track "Ballad of Richard Lewis", an homage to the Welsh labourer and hero better known as Dic Penderyn
, who was sentenced to death after leading the Merthyr Rising of 1831
. The song would be later included in further albums (including the Thunder and Rainbows compilation, the Don't Talk About Love live album, and Evolved, as a re-recording in a different style) as "Dic Penderyn".
' diary or Madonna
's film schedule for when [my songs] get released." Joseph began publishing work under a new medium, a news magazine entitled The Passport Queue, the name of which is taken from a line in the song "Everything in Heaven". Subscribers of the magazine receive free annual CDs of rare recordings.
In his first release under Pipe Records, Far From Silent, Joseph explored the complications of fame and fortune, in the second track "Celebrity". The eighth track, entitled "The Good in Me is Dead", written in the perspective of a Kosovo
refugee in light of the Balkan atrocities
, reflects Joseph's penchant for writing about social tragedies and injustice. "The prime motive in the instant that I pick up the guitar is a selfish one," Joseph says. "It's because I need to deal with the world. I'm in the world and it's horrible, and what can I do? I'm just getting this stuff out of my system as it were."
Between Far From Silent and his next LP, Joseph came out with several works, the first of which was a 2000 limited edition EP, The Shirley Sessions, which he worked on primarily during a tour with Shirley Bassey
gone awry. The next year, in 2001, Joseph compiled a two-disc best-of album entitled Thunder and Rainbows - The Best We Could Find comprising 31 of his previous favourites and 2 new songs. Following his first best-of compilation, he came out with his second live album, two volumes of recordings under the title Don't Talk About Love 1992 - 2002.
In November 2003, Joseph released his second LP under Pipe Records, Whoever It Was That Brought Me Here Will Have To Take Me Home. Soon thereafter, Joseph began a serious collaboration with Tom Robinson
and Steve Knightley
, whom he worked with extensively early in his career. The result was the 2004 release, Faith, Folk and Anarchy, as well as an eventual live accompaniment, Faith, Folk & Anarchy Live. The next year brought three more releases from Joseph. In the midst of the controversial war in Iraq, Joseph's next album, Deep Blue, featured the highly political tracks "Yet Still This Will Not Be" and "How Did We End Up Here". Joseph mused in an interview with a folk music website, "I bet, in his private moments alone, deep down, Tony Blair
the person regrets what he did in Iraq”. The Bridgerow Sessions and Because We Can..., further collaborated on with Steve Knightley and Stewart Henderson respectively, rounded out the year.
A regular performer at the annual Greenbelt Festival
in the United Kingdom, Joseph recorded his 2006 performance and released it as MJGB06. The same year, he came out with his first live effort recorded on DVD, Martyn Joseph Live. A two-day stint in Las Vegas
would precede his following LP released in 2007 and would prove to be highly influential, inspiring the album's title, Vegas, and its title-track. Another track on the album, "Kindness", was, on the other hand, inspired by the homeless situation in Toronto
. The album exhibited a generally edgier sound, featuring electric guitar
.
In October 2008, Joseph released Evolved, a new full-length album featuring 14 newly recorded tracks of songs in Joseph's previous catalogue, but played in a different style than its original recording. He felt that the songs found in his albums no longer reflected the manner in which he played them live. The songs are uniquely presented exactly as Joseph played it in studio without any overdubbing or additional instrumentation.
In January 2009, at the height of the Israeli attack on Gaza, Joseph released "Five Sisters", a track paying homage to the five sisters who were killed by an Israeli shell supposedly meant to hit a mosque
. Later that year, Joseph released another live album entitled Official Bootleg Series – Volume 1 – Live Cuts 92–08. As the title suggests, the album compiled an assortment of official bootlegs spanning performances from 1992 to 2008. During a 31-date tour of the United Kingdom, beginning in October 2010, Joseph's performances were recorded for a future live DVD release.
Joseph later released Under Lemonade Skies, a 10-track LP.
and the United States
. One of his songs, "All This Time" was borne of a trip through the Canadian wilderness. Of the track's inspiration, Joseph explains, "It humbles you visiting a place like that. Anyone who has an ego problem needs to backpack through Canada for a while." He is also a regular performer at major Canadian folk
festivals
, including the Vancouver
and Edmonton Folk Music Festival
s, and at the annual Greenbelt Festival
in the UK.
Joseph has performed as a support act for a wide variety of artists
, such as Marc Cohn
, Joan Armatrading
, Art Garfunkel
, and Suzanne Vega
. In June 2000, he left a tour with Shirley Bassey
after only eight shows because of what he described as "rather obvious artistic differences". Prior to the tour, he admitted in an interview with Cross Rhythms
, "I've heard that she can be difficult...I figure that [my songs will] paint a slightly different picture to the one she will probably paint so I guess it's a sense of balance, it's a challenge." Having unexpected time on his hands, he recorded an EP entitled The Shirley Sessions, which consisted of several songs written during the tour.
In his early career, he experimented with an accompanied arrangement in his live shows, having been assigned drummer Pete Thomas from the Attractions by his Sony label.
's MST (Movimento dos Trabalhadores Sem Terra), Amnesty International
, Christian Aid
, Casa Alianza
, the Stephen Lewis Foundation
, Jubilee 2000
and Advantage Africa.
In May 2004, in the wake of the 2003 invasion of Iraq, Joseph released a five-track EP, The Great American Novel, with all proceeds designated to War Child
. He worked on the recording with regular collaborators Tom Robinson and Steve Knightley.
Welsh people
The Welsh people are an ethnic group and nation associated with Wales and the Welsh language.John Davies argues that the origin of the "Welsh nation" can be traced to the late 4th and early 5th centuries, following the Roman departure from Britain, although Brythonic Celtic languages seem to have...
singer-songwriter
Singer-songwriter
Singer-songwriters are musicians who write, compose and sing their own musical material including lyrics and melodies. As opposed to contemporary popular music singers who write their own songs, the term singer-songwriter describes a distinct form of artistry, closely associated with the...
whose music exhibits primarily a brand of Celtic
Celtic music
Celtic music is a term utilised by artists, record companies, music stores and music magazines to describe a broad grouping of musical genres that evolved out of the folk musical traditions of the Celtic people of Western Europe...
and folk
Folk music
Folk music is an English term encompassing both traditional folk music and contemporary folk music. The term originated in the 19th century. Traditional folk music has been defined in several ways: as music transmitted by mouth, as music of the lower classes, and as music with unknown composers....
, while his songwriting is often focused on social lament or protest. From independently releasing his first studio release, I'm Only Beginning in 1983, to his latest 2010 album, Under Lemonade Skies, Joseph's career has spanned twenty-six years and three different labels – Sony, Grapevine and his own Pipe Records. In 2004, he won the Best Male Artist Category in the BBC
BBC Wales
BBC Cymru Wales is a division of the British Broadcasting Corporation for Wales. Based at Broadcasting House in the Llandaff area of Cardiff, it directly employs over 1200 people, and produces a broad range of television, radio and online services in both the Welsh and English languages.Outside...
Welsh Music Awards.
Early life
Born in WalesWales
Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...
, Joseph grew up as an avid golf
Golf
Golf is a precision club and ball sport, in which competing players use many types of clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a golf course using the fewest number of strokes....
er, having started to play at the age of 10. At 15 years old, he was playing off a handicap of one, and at 17, he became the youngest ever winner of the Glamorganshire Golf Club Championship. He has won that title four times and also played for the County of Glamorgan and in the British Youths and Amateur Championships in the 1980s. Joseph remains a keen amateur golfer and plays with a handicap of four. However, Joseph would gradually focus his career path on music. Growing up, he participated in school eisteddfods and, at his own estimate, he had already written several songs by his early teens.
Early career (1983–1998)
Joseph began recordingSound recording and reproduction
Sound recording and reproduction is an electrical or mechanical inscription and re-creation of sound waves, such as spoken voice, singing, instrumental music, or sound effects. The two main classes of sound recording technology are analog recording and digital recording...
in 1983, releasing 5 albums over the 80's, culminating in his 1989 self-financed An Aching And A Longing (Myrrh Records), which sold 30,000 copies and gained him a large enough following that he was subsequently signed to Sony Records. He made his major label debut with Being There in 1992. It was produced by Ben Wisch, to create more stripped-down arrangements. Joseph worked musically with Pete Brookes, while collaborating with lyricist Stewart Henderson on many of the tracks. A year after the release of Being There, Joseph recorded live versions of the songs featured on the album and released it under the title Undrugged.
His second and final release under Sony was the self-titled Martyn Joseph was produced by Mick Glossop, whose previous work included albums with The Waterboys
The Waterboys
The Waterboys are a band formed in 1983 by Mike Scott. The band's membership, past and present, has been composed mainly of musicians from Scotland, Ireland and England. Edinburgh, London, Dublin, Spiddal, New York, and Findhorn have all served as homes for the group. The band has played in a...
. The first single under Martyn Joseph, 'Talk about it in the morning' co-written with Tom Robinson
Tom Robinson
Tom Robinson is an English singer-songwriter, bassist and radio presenter, better known for the hits "Glad to Be Gay", "2-4-6-8 Motorway", and "Don't Take No for an Answer", with his Tom Robinson Band...
, came out on May 8, 1997 and reached the Top 50 charts in the UK.
Joseph's brief major label career produced five Top 50 singles
Single (music)
In music, a single or record single is a type of release, typically a recording of fewer tracks than an LP or a CD. This can be released for sale to the public in a variety of different formats. In most cases, the single is a song that is released separately from an album, but it can still appear...
total in the UK
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
, including "Dolphins Make Me Cry", "Working Mother", "Being There" and "Let's Talk About It In The Morning." Prior to 2003's Whoever It Was That Brought Me Here Will Have To Take Me Home, Being There and Martyn Joseph were the only albums of his to have been released in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
.
After being dropped by Sony, he recorded two albums for the UK independent record label
Record label
In the music industry, a record label is a brand and a trademark associated with the marketing of music recordings and music videos. Most commonly, a record label is the company that manages such brands and trademarks, coordinates the production, manufacture, distribution, marketing and promotion,...
Grapevine: Full Colour Black and White and Tangled Souls. His first release under Grapevine featured the fourth track "Ballad of Richard Lewis", an homage to the Welsh labourer and hero better known as Dic Penderyn
Dic Penderyn
Richard Lewis, better known as Dic Penderyn , was a Welsh labourer and coal miner who was involved with the Merthyr Rising of June 3, 1831. In the course of the riot he was arrested alongside Lewis Lewis, one of the primary figures in the uprising, and charged with stabbing a soldier with a bayonet...
, who was sentenced to death after leading the Merthyr Rising of 1831
Merthyr Rising 1831
The Merthyr Rising of 1831 was the violent climax to many years of simmering unrest among the large working class population of Merthyr Tydfil in South Wales and the surrounding area....
. The song would be later included in further albums (including the Thunder and Rainbows compilation, the Don't Talk About Love live album, and Evolved, as a re-recording in a different style) as "Dic Penderyn".
Pipe Records (1999–present)
In 1999, Joseph established his own label, Pipe Records, citing "creative freedom" and "complete control" as the main advantages granted him that were not possible working under other labels. Drawing from possible past experiences with Sony, Joseph explains, "I'm not dependent on Robbie WilliamsRobbie Williams
Robert Peter "Robbie" Williams is an English singer-songwriter, vocal coach and occasional actor. He is a member of the pop group Take That. Williams rose to fame in the band's first run in the early- to mid-1990s. After many disagreements with the management and certain group members, Williams...
' diary or Madonna
Madonna (entertainer)
Madonna is an American singer-songwriter, actress and entrepreneur. Born in Bay City, Michigan, she moved to New York City in 1977 to pursue a career in modern dance. After performing in the music groups Breakfast Club and Emmy, she released her debut album in 1983...
's film schedule for when [my songs] get released." Joseph began publishing work under a new medium, a news magazine entitled The Passport Queue, the name of which is taken from a line in the song "Everything in Heaven". Subscribers of the magazine receive free annual CDs of rare recordings.
In his first release under Pipe Records, Far From Silent, Joseph explored the complications of fame and fortune, in the second track "Celebrity". The eighth track, entitled "The Good in Me is Dead", written in the perspective of a Kosovo
Kosovo
Kosovo is a region in southeastern Europe. Part of the Ottoman Empire for more than five centuries, later the Autonomous Province of Kosovo and Metohija within Serbia...
refugee in light of the Balkan atrocities
Kosovo War
The term Kosovo War or Kosovo conflict was two sequential, and at times parallel, armed conflicts in Kosovo province, then part of FR Yugoslav Republic of Serbia; from early 1998 to 1999, there was an armed conflict initiated by the ethnic Albanian "Kosovo Liberation Army" , who sought independence...
, reflects Joseph's penchant for writing about social tragedies and injustice. "The prime motive in the instant that I pick up the guitar is a selfish one," Joseph says. "It's because I need to deal with the world. I'm in the world and it's horrible, and what can I do? I'm just getting this stuff out of my system as it were."
Between Far From Silent and his next LP, Joseph came out with several works, the first of which was a 2000 limited edition EP, The Shirley Sessions, which he worked on primarily during a tour with Shirley Bassey
Shirley Bassey
Dame Shirley Bassey, DBE , is a Welsh singer. She found fame in the late 1950s and was "one of the most popular female vocalists in Britain during the last half of the 20th century"...
gone awry. The next year, in 2001, Joseph compiled a two-disc best-of album entitled Thunder and Rainbows - The Best We Could Find comprising 31 of his previous favourites and 2 new songs. Following his first best-of compilation, he came out with his second live album, two volumes of recordings under the title Don't Talk About Love 1992 - 2002.
In November 2003, Joseph released his second LP under Pipe Records, Whoever It Was That Brought Me Here Will Have To Take Me Home. Soon thereafter, Joseph began a serious collaboration with Tom Robinson
Tom Robinson
Tom Robinson is an English singer-songwriter, bassist and radio presenter, better known for the hits "Glad to Be Gay", "2-4-6-8 Motorway", and "Don't Take No for an Answer", with his Tom Robinson Band...
and Steve Knightley
Steve Knightley
Steve Knightley is a singer-songwriter, musician and one half of British acoustic roots duo Show of Hands.-Career:...
, whom he worked with extensively early in his career. The result was the 2004 release, Faith, Folk and Anarchy, as well as an eventual live accompaniment, Faith, Folk & Anarchy Live. The next year brought three more releases from Joseph. In the midst of the controversial war in Iraq, Joseph's next album, Deep Blue, featured the highly political tracks "Yet Still This Will Not Be" and "How Did We End Up Here". Joseph mused in an interview with a folk music website, "I bet, in his private moments alone, deep down, Tony Blair
Tony Blair
Anthony Charles Lynton Blair is a former British Labour Party politician who served as the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 2 May 1997 to 27 June 2007. He was the Member of Parliament for Sedgefield from 1983 to 2007 and Leader of the Labour Party from 1994 to 2007...
the person regrets what he did in Iraq”. The Bridgerow Sessions and Because We Can..., further collaborated on with Steve Knightley and Stewart Henderson respectively, rounded out the year.
A regular performer at the annual Greenbelt Festival
Greenbelt festival
Greenbelt Festival is a festival of arts, faith and justice held annually in England since 1974. Greenbelt has grown from a Christian music festival with an audience of 1,500 young Christians to its current more secular festival attended by around 20,000 - Christians and non-Christians.The festival...
in the United Kingdom, Joseph recorded his 2006 performance and released it as MJGB06. The same year, he came out with his first live effort recorded on DVD, Martyn Joseph Live. A two-day stint in Las Vegas
Las Vegas, Nevada
Las Vegas is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Nevada and is also the county seat of Clark County, Nevada. Las Vegas is an internationally renowned major resort city for gambling, shopping, and fine dining. The city bills itself as The Entertainment Capital of the World, and is famous...
would precede his following LP released in 2007 and would prove to be highly influential, inspiring the album's title, Vegas, and its title-track. Another track on the album, "Kindness", was, on the other hand, inspired by the homeless situation in Toronto
Toronto
Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...
. The album exhibited a generally edgier sound, featuring electric guitar
Electric guitar
An electric guitar is a guitar that uses the principle of direct electromagnetic induction to convert vibrations of its metal strings into electric audio signals. The signal generated by an electric guitar is too weak to drive a loudspeaker, so it is amplified before sending it to a loudspeaker...
.
In October 2008, Joseph released Evolved, a new full-length album featuring 14 newly recorded tracks of songs in Joseph's previous catalogue, but played in a different style than its original recording. He felt that the songs found in his albums no longer reflected the manner in which he played them live. The songs are uniquely presented exactly as Joseph played it in studio without any overdubbing or additional instrumentation.
In January 2009, at the height of the Israeli attack on Gaza, Joseph released "Five Sisters", a track paying homage to the five sisters who were killed by an Israeli shell supposedly meant to hit a mosque
Mosque
A mosque is a place of worship for followers of Islam. The word is likely to have entered the English language through French , from Portuguese , from Spanish , and from Berber , ultimately originating in — . The Arabic word masjid literally means a place of prostration...
. Later that year, Joseph released another live album entitled Official Bootleg Series – Volume 1 – Live Cuts 92–08. As the title suggests, the album compiled an assortment of official bootlegs spanning performances from 1992 to 2008. During a 31-date tour of the United Kingdom, beginning in October 2010, Joseph's performances were recorded for a future live DVD release.
Joseph later released Under Lemonade Skies, a 10-track LP.
Touring
Joseph tours extensively as a solo artist in the UK, and in the early 2000s he began touring regularly in CanadaCanada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
and the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. One of his songs, "All This Time" was borne of a trip through the Canadian wilderness. Of the track's inspiration, Joseph explains, "It humbles you visiting a place like that. Anyone who has an ego problem needs to backpack through Canada for a while." He is also a regular performer at major Canadian folk
Folk music
Folk music is an English term encompassing both traditional folk music and contemporary folk music. The term originated in the 19th century. Traditional folk music has been defined in several ways: as music transmitted by mouth, as music of the lower classes, and as music with unknown composers....
festivals
Music festival
A music festival is a festival oriented towards music that is sometimes presented with a theme such as musical genre, nationality or locality of musicians, or holiday. They are commonly held outdoors, and are often inclusive of other attractions such as food and merchandise vending machines,...
, including the Vancouver
Vancouver Folk Music Festival
The Vancouver Folk Music Festival is an outdoor multistage music festival. It takes place annually, on the third weekend of July. Founded in 1978, this annual festival uses eight outdoor stages, located at Jericho Beach Park on the west side of Vancouver, British Columbia.In the past it has...
and Edmonton Folk Music Festival
Edmonton Folk Music Festival
The Edmonton Folk Music Festival is an annual four-day outdoor music event held the second weekend of August in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, established in 1980 by Don Whalen. The festival continues to draw many people from around the world as both spectators and performers. The current producer of...
s, and at the annual Greenbelt Festival
Greenbelt festival
Greenbelt Festival is a festival of arts, faith and justice held annually in England since 1974. Greenbelt has grown from a Christian music festival with an audience of 1,500 young Christians to its current more secular festival attended by around 20,000 - Christians and non-Christians.The festival...
in the UK.
Joseph has performed as a support act for a wide variety of artists
Musician
A musician is an artist who plays a musical instrument. It may or may not be the person's profession. Musicians can be classified by their roles in performing music and writing music.Also....* A person who makes music a profession....
, such as Marc Cohn
Marc Cohn
Marc Craig Cohn is an American folk rock singer-songwriter and musician.- Personal life :Cohn was born in Cleveland, Ohio. He graduated from Beachwood High School in Beachwood, a Cleveland suburb. He then attended Oberlin College....
, Joan Armatrading
Joan Armatrading
Joan Anita Barbara Armatrading, MBE is a British singer, songwriter and guitarist. Armatrading is a three-time Grammy Award-nominee and has been nominated twice for BRIT Awards as Best Female Artist...
, Art Garfunkel
Art Garfunkel
Arthur Ira "Art" Garfunkel is an American singer-songwriter, poet, and actor, best known as being a member of the folk duo Simon & Garfunkel...
, and Suzanne Vega
Suzanne Vega
Suzanne Nadine Vega is an American songwriter and singer known for her eclectic folk-inspired music.Two of Vega's songs reached the top 10 of various international chart listings: "Luka" and "Tom's Diner"...
. In June 2000, he left a tour with Shirley Bassey
Shirley Bassey
Dame Shirley Bassey, DBE , is a Welsh singer. She found fame in the late 1950s and was "one of the most popular female vocalists in Britain during the last half of the 20th century"...
after only eight shows because of what he described as "rather obvious artistic differences". Prior to the tour, he admitted in an interview with Cross Rhythms
Cross Rhythms
Cross Rhythms is a Christian media organisation based in Stoke-on-Trent, England.-History:The roots of what was to become Cross Rhythms go back to two separate sources which merged in 1991. In 1983, broadcaster Chris Cole started a 30-minute weekly Christian music radio show on Plymouth Sound FM, a...
, "I've heard that she can be difficult...I figure that [my songs will] paint a slightly different picture to the one she will probably paint so I guess it's a sense of balance, it's a challenge." Having unexpected time on his hands, he recorded an EP entitled The Shirley Sessions, which consisted of several songs written during the tour.
In his early career, he experimented with an accompanied arrangement in his live shows, having been assigned drummer Pete Thomas from the Attractions by his Sony label.
Activism
Spanning his musical career, Joseph has campaigned for countless causes. Asked in an interview whether he considered himself primarily a musician or activist, Joseph replied, "I can’t decide ... I guess it’s all part and parcel of the same thing for me." Focusing his attention towards trade justice, third world debt cancellation and human rights, Joseph has been involved with BrazilBrazil
Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...
's MST (Movimento dos Trabalhadores Sem Terra), Amnesty International
Amnesty International
Amnesty International is an international non-governmental organisation whose stated mission is "to conduct research and generate action to prevent and end grave abuses of human rights, and to demand justice for those whose rights have been violated."Following a publication of Peter Benenson's...
, Christian Aid
Christian Aid
Christian Aid is the official relief and development agency of 40 British and Irish churches and works to support sustainable development, alleviate poverty, support civil society and provide disaster relief in South America, the Caribbean, the Middle East, Africa and Asia...
, Casa Alianza
Casa Alianza
Casa Alianza is an international not for profit organisation and the Latin American branch of Covenant House. It is a charity and NGO whose aims are the rehabilitation and the defence of street children. It was first set up in Guatemala in 1981, then in both Honduras and Mexico in 1986, then in...
, the Stephen Lewis Foundation
Stephen Lewis Foundation
The Stephen Lewis Foundation is a non-governmental organization that assists mostly AIDS and HIV-related grassroots projects in Africa.-History:...
, Jubilee 2000
Jubilee 2000
Jubilee 2000 was an international coalition movement in over 40 countries that called for cancellation of third world debt by the year 2000. This movement coincided with the Great Jubilee, the celebration of the year 2000 in the Catholic Church...
and Advantage Africa.
In May 2004, in the wake of the 2003 invasion of Iraq, Joseph released a five-track EP, The Great American Novel, with all proceeds designated to War Child
War Child
War Child or Warchild may refer to:* Child soldiers, children who are used in war, as soldiers or in combat support* Military brat, military slang for a child or teenager of a military family* Refugee, children who are refugees of war...
. He worked on the recording with regular collaborators Tom Robinson and Steve Knightley.
Studio Albums
- I'm Only Beginning (1983)
- Nobody's Fool (1984)
- Sold Out (1985)
- Ballads...In Quieter Moments (1986)
- Treasure the Questions (1987)
- Being There (1992)
- Martyn Joseph (1995)
- Full Colour Black And White (1996)
- Tangled Souls (1998)
- Far From Silent (1999)
- Whoever It Was That Brought Me Here Will Have To Take Me Home (2003)
- Run to Cover (2004)
- Deep Blue (2005)
- Vegas (September 2007)
- Evolved (October 2008)
- Under Lemonade Skies (October 2010)
- Broken Peace (October 2010)
Live albums
- An Aching and a Longing (1989)
- Undrugged/Being There (1993)
- Live at St. David's Hall Cardiff (1995) (free for new members of artist's fan mag)
- Don't Talk About Love 1992 - 2002 (Volume 1, 2001)
- Don't Talk About Love 1992 - 2002 (Volume 2, 2002)
- Faith, Folk & Anarchy Live (2004)
- Live in Toronto (2006) (available as an mp3 download only from artist website)
- Martyn Joseph Live (2006, double DVD)
- MJGB06 - Live Greenbelt 2006 (2007)
- Official Bootleg Series - Vol 1 - Live Cuts 92-08 (2009)
Collaborations
- Faith, Folk, And Anarchy (2004, with Tom RobinsonTom RobinsonTom Robinson is an English singer-songwriter, bassist and radio presenter, better known for the hits "Glad to Be Gay", "2-4-6-8 Motorway", and "Don't Take No for an Answer", with his Tom Robinson Band...
& Steve KnightleySteve KnightleySteve Knightley is a singer-songwriter, musician and one half of British acoustic roots duo Show of Hands.-Career:...
) - The Bridgerow Sessions (2005, with Steve Knightley)
- Because We Can... (2005, music and poetry recorded with Stewart Henderson)
- Because We Can...Again (2009, music and poetry recorded with Stewart Henderson)