New album of home recordings recorded during the 2020 lockdown. Includes sublime takes on songs by Bob Dylan, John Prine, Lyle Lovett and Robin Williamson. Martin Simpson’s next album was going to be a live one. But the lockdown put paid to all that. Even so, this cloud does have a silver lining. And what a silver lining it is. Unable to play to audiences (Martin can average over 100 gigs a year) or go into a recording studio, the only solution was to record a new album at home and were it not for the gaggle of geese flying overhead (you can hear them on Lonesome Valley Geese) and the birds happily tweeting on the closing track, you perhaps wouldn’t know this wasn’t a studio album. Recorded by his regular producer, now neighbour, Andy Bell, the aptly-named, Home Recordings finds Martin singing and playing, literally amongst his beloved guitar and banjo collection and out on his Peak District-facing porch. Home Recordings includes outstanding takes on Lyle Lovett’s Family Reserve (from his 1992 album, Joshua Judges Ruth), John Prine’s Angel From Montgomery (from his 1971 debut album), Robin Williamson’s October Song (from Incredible String Band's eponymous debut album, 1966) and of course, Bob Dylan’s These Times, They Are A-Changin', which sounds particularly apt in the current climate.