Martyn Wyndham-Read has been involved with folk music for over fifty years. In his late teens he left his mother’s farm in Sussex and headed off, with his guitar, to Australia where he worked on a sheep station Emu Springs in South Australia. It was while he was there that he heard, first hand, the old songs sung by some of the station hands at Emu Springs and he became captivated by these songs and the need to know more of them and where they came from grew.
He headed off to Melbourne and became part of the folk song revival there and throughout Australia during the early1960’s..
Back to England in 1967 where he met up with the renowned singer and song collector Bert Lloyd, who himself had spent time in Australia. Martyn was asked by Bert Lloyd to be part of the album ‘Leviathan’ on the Topic label and soon after he started recording for Bill Leader and touring extensively worldwide.
Craig McGregor of The Canberra Times described his style as “great clarity, in fact he is one of the few singers who can do justice to our bush-ranging and convict songs. His style is polished and rounded, full-blown almost, yet it escapes the theatricality which seems to creep into the work of some of our classically-trained folk singers.”
He has produced over 40 albums and appeared at folk festivals in Australia, and around the world. And when he comes to Oz he stops at Kiama with Yvonne and Cath O’Grady and the fiddling Scotsman, Monty.
It is because of that we have been able to snare him to play for us.
Support Act: The Presenters – Who are they I hear you say? Well, if you tune in to VOX FM (106.9) on Saturdays between 2pm and 4pm you will hear them (a different one each week)
We’ve cajoled them out of the safety of their studios and each of them will be doing something at the concert. Could be a song, a tune, a yarn or a poem. You can get to hear Rusty, Graeme Morrison, Johnny Spillane, Yvonne and Monty, Bigruss, Alison Foley (our newest presenter) and The Romeos.