Martyn Joseph is a Welsh musical artist who was invited to perform in Prince George for the first time in 1999 by Coldsnap organizer Jo Beattie, and has come back about twice a year since 2000.
"Prince George is my Canadian home," said Joseph. "It's the first place I'd played in Canada. I made a lot of friends and then I fell in love with Canada itself and [the country] seemed to get what I did so I started to play the folk festivals in Calgary, Vancouver, Edmonton and Winnipeg."
Joseph created an audience for himself then and went on tour often.
"Because Prince George was always my first port of call, I have seen it as my adopted home," said Joseph. "It's really special to me. I made really good friendships here."
Joseph said Canada is an inspirational place and wrote his song All This Time on his way from Prince Rupert to Smithers.
"I was approaching my 40th birthday at the time - a time in one's life you begin to reflect and look backwards and the vastness of B.C. and the beauty of it, the harshness of it along with its compassion, its softness on the eyes - it just sort of spoke to me," said Joseph. "You realize you're not as important as you think you are and that's really good for the soul. As a writer, that sends you down a path and my guitar is a sort of cheap psychiatrist - always has been, so my way of dealing with things is to write about it. That's the great thing about songs, they make us feel like we're not alone in the world. That's the job of art in the world, as I see it. And so Canada because it is such a beautiful place lends itself to the creative spirit."
Joseph's 25-year career includes five Top 50 UK chart positions, with such songs as Dolphins Make Me Cry, Working Mother and Let's Talk About it in the Morning, and appearances and tours with Suzanne Vega, Marc Cohn, Joan Armatrading, Chris de Burgh, Art Garfunkel, Jools Holland, Celine Dion and Shirley Bassey.
Joseph's particular strength is in the lyrical narrative of his songs protesting against injustice and inhumanity, or the fulfillment or the fragile nature of love.
"Each concert is like a journey," said Joseph. "I haven't done the same set list in years. For me it's like treating the concert a little more like a dinner party. So we go together on this journey and we may laugh and we may cry and we get to the point where at the end of the night people will walk away thinking I'm really glad I came and I was challenged and I'm more hopeful about the world. I always try to make a connection with the audience."
Tickets are $20 and are available at Books and Company and Studio 2880.
