Martin Winsor & Jeannie Steel - Troubadours (2021) [Hi-Res]

Unreleased British folk from 1972. Three young German musicians are spending their summer holidays hanging around London folk-clubs; among those they visit are The Half Moon in Putney and The Nag's Head in Battersea. These three are members of the 5 piece Folk Band Gurnemanz, Lukas W. Scheel (21), Wolfgang Riedel (20) and Manuela Schmitz (16). They are doing another floor spot, this time at the famous Troubadour in Old Brompton Road: The hosts of the Troubadour that evening, like the title of their LP from 1972 are Martin Winsor, Redd Sullivan and Jeannie Steel, Martin's partner in life as well as in music.Martin Winsor was part of the British folk revival in the 50's and together with Redd Sullivan was a member of the Forty Four Skiffle Group during the Skiffle craze, which then developed into a network of folk clubs all over Great Britain. In 1963 Martin became host of the Troubadour with his long time friend Redd Sullivan, previously a merchant sailor. Redd with his extraordinary voice and performing ability, soon became a towering force in the folk revival. Martin's baritone combined with the strong alto of Jeannie, a Scottish singer, (who's family maintained a strong Scottish song tradition): this duo could fill a room with their rich sound. Martin was an impressive raconteur, with a gift for mimicry of accents as well as instruments. (His vocal impression of a trumpet astounded audiences, as you will hear on this LP.) Unfortunately in the late 70's the UK folk scene was going through a rough period, and Martin & Jeannie began to look further afield for work. When Lukas Scheel, became a professional musical booking agent, he began arranging tours of Europe for the duo. These gigs were indeed welcome. Being brilliant entertainers, Martin & Jeannie were much appreciated by German audiences. Likewise Martin arranged gigs for the band in London, including a live show for BBC radio in December 1976.This chance meeting at the Troubadour with Gurnemanz turned into a lifelong friendship.

This led to a joint project, and happily Folk Omnibus was born: in the 70's folk festivals were extremely popular on the continent, so the offer of a 3-act line up by Lukas Scheel to organizers, was something they couldn't resist. In addition to Gurnemanz, the duo Martin and Jeannie, the third act was solo artist John Makin (later known as Mr. John), a British singer / songwriter and ragtime guitarist then living in Brussels. Apart from a Folk and Country album recorded by friend and producer Dave Travis, Martin and Jeannie had not recorded for some time. With the success of the Folk Omnibus tour, the concept of doing new recordings was raised. With the collaboration of Gurnemanz and their producer Wolfgang Homeyer it went ahead. The plan was to publish the LP on EMI's label "Songbird", with whom Gurnemanz had already released their second album "No Rays Of Noise". But shortly before completion, EMI got rid of the subsidiary and the record was never released..until now!! If John Cremer hadn't kept the 1979 recordings for all these years and re-mastered them at his Railroad-Tracks Studio, they would have never been heard.