WIDELY regarded as one of the finest acoustic and slide guitar players in the world, Martin Simpson’s interpretations of traditional songs are masterpieces of storytelling. His solo shows are intense, spellbinding and deeply moving.

There is no-one who has more successfully combined the diverse elements of British, Afro-American and old-timey music than Simpson. Originally from Yorkshire, his 15 years living in the US were well spent. In addition his own songwriting has produced some real gems, from the truck-stop epic, “Love Never Dies” to the profoundly moving “Never Any Good” and "One Day".

His career includes collaborations on stage and record with Richard Hawley, Richard Thompson, June Tabor, Jackson Brown, Martin Carthy, Martin Taylor and many more.   Martin has been nominated an astounding 27 times in the BBC 2 Folk Awards and has been named Musician of the Year twice.

He has been nominated 23 times in the 11 years of the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards, including nine times consecutively as Artist of The Year, which he has won twice. His album Prodigal Son was named album of the year in 2008 and a song from that album, "Never Any Good" was named best original song of the year.

Martin has performed on Later... with Jools Holland and has also performed a half-hour set a the Proms in 2008, which was broadcast on BBC4. More recently, in 2015 he released Murmurs with Andy Cutting and Nancy Kerr.

Whether playing American old-time music, blues, as Dylan song or his own award-winning material Martin Simpson is a guitarist of huge power and immense subtlety.

He performs at the Eastgate Theatre in Peebles on Thursday, May 5.

Tickets are priced £15, £13 concessions and £6 for schoolchildren.