Martin Browne & Elizabeth Padgett

Contemporary and traditional folk music

Background....

Born and raised in Boston, Lincolnshire, Martin's first interest in music was as a choirboy at his local church. (You might not believe it if you saw him now).

He developed an interest in the guitar at the age of sixteen, believing it to possess mystical pulling powers. After playing electric rhythm guitar in a couple of blues groups he forsook performing in public (under orders from his mum) to get on with his "A" levels.

Whilst away at college in Loughborough he was introduced to the intricacies of fingerstyle acoustic folk music when he overheard fellow students in his hall of residence. Won over by the songs of such artists as Peter, Paul & Mary, Gordon Lightfoot, Tim Hardin, Joni Mitchell and James Taylor he set out to practise their various techniques until, after a period of only thirty-five years, and during a period of mid-life crisis, he felt confident enough to inflict himself once more upon an unsuspecting public in July 2001.

Other influences have been Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, Jackson Browne, The Eagles, Bonnie Raitt, Bert Jansch, John Renbourn and, in more recent years, Richard Shindell, David Wilcox, Lucy Kaplansky, Beth Nielsen-Chapman and many others.

Inspired by the array of song-writing talent at Spalding Folk Club he began writing his own songs in September 2001.

If asked who was the most influential of the above the answer would undoubtedly be Gordon Lightfoot.

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