I don’t know how many times I visited the Martyn Bennett website to watch this animated video to ‘Move‘. It’s from Martyn’s 2003 album ‘Grit‘ which was released on Real World Records. Now Real World have made it available on Youtube.
The vocals featured on this track are that of the famous Scottish tradtional singer Sheila Stewart of Rattray who came from a family of travellers. Martyn had known Sheila since he was a youngster. The track also features extracts from ‘The Moving on Song’ writen by Ewan MacColl. The track served to highlight the struggle and persecution of the Roma, the oldest race of nomadic people in Europe. In Martyn’s liner notes he states ‘They have certainly been in Scotland for well over one thousand years’.
Read our review of the new Martyn Bennett compilation Aye