About this Event

Martha Tilston has grown up immersed in music. So much so that she thinks of song writing as the coat she wears on the journey, not the destination she is travelling to. It has taken her to many interesting places; opening the acoustic stage at Glastonbury; touring the far reaches of the globe; gaining a BBC nomination for best new-comer at the folk awards; recording and releasing several of her own albums, being a guest vocalist for zero 7, and meeting and playing with some of the world’s most inspiring musicians.



Martha, now based by the sea in Cornwall, followed the many adventures and diversions along the way, -with the support and inspiration of her parents including: father Steve Tilston (acclaimed Singer songwriter) and step mother Maggie Boyle (renowned folk singer), she ran from the London recording studios of the plastic pop scene as a girl, into the beduin tent of the ‘small world stage’. Martha formed duo MOUSE with Nick Marshall and together they travelled the country with the solar stage, its musicians, clowns, lantern light and canvas.



Mouse very quickly gained a large word of mouth following. They released a ground breaking album and had a magical couple of years discovering the underground acoustic music scene and living a lifetimes’ worth of stories to tell.



The road then turned into a solo track, and Martha put out her first lo-fi solo album ‘Rolling’. She funded the pressing of her next record, 2005’s ‘Bimbling’, through the sale of the album’s artwork.

Martha, with producer/bass /bouzouki player/right hand man, Matt Tweed kept with the artist led label model, putting out the critically acclaimed albums ‘Of Milkmaids and Architects’, ‘ Lucy and the Wolves’ and ‘Machines of Love and Grace’.



They tour extensively with Martha’s band; a handful of very talented and faithful players including early collaborator Nick Marshall.

Folk music has always been an important part of Martha’s repertoire and she has constantly experimented with what that means. In the early days it meant singing the folk songs she’d know since childhood on makeshift stages at trance parties and underground squats.



The social awareness in old folk songs strongly influenced the ‘eloquent, politicized questioning’ in her writing, and now Martha has recorded her first album of traditional songs, each song features a member of her family or close friends.



The new album, released in September – working title ‘Sea Chest’ really is a box of treasures. Recorded by the sea at Prussia Cove, and in Tilston’s Cornish home. Every song has the magic and talent of each guest singer suffused within. There is an enticing constancy running through all the tracks like strong fisherman’s rope.