Martin Ansell
Born in Gillingham, Kent, raised on peanut butter and The Beatles, Martin played harmonica on the gravestones of St Mary''s Church until a plastic guitar changed his life at the age of 8. "I fell in love with the acoustic guitar listening to Roy Harper, Nick Drake, Leonard Cohen and all that happy stuff!"

In 1986 he was signed by Chris Blackwell to Island Records and his album The Englishman Abroad - produced by Rupert Hine, with guests Howard Jones, Phil Palmer (Dire Straits) and Trevor Morais (drummer with ‘60’s legends The Peddlers and later in the ‘90’s Underworld) - was first released. One of Martin''s songs from the album ''Shine'' was subsequently included in the film soundtrack of "Better off Dead" starring John Cusack (listen/watch here) and another, ''The Eighth Wonder'', was a huge international success when covered by Miguel Bose. Since then Martin''s songs have been covered by Sally Barker and The Poozies and he has toured Europe with Van Morrison, Chris Isaak, The Fixx and Tom Robinson, to name a few.

Martin has just released a new solo album June Said and his partnership with Debbie Cassell in the duo Woman Wants Tall Man has led to two CDs, "Woman Wants Tall Man" and "Best With The Head Off".

Debbie Cassell
Debbie grew up in Shropshire, & was singing before she could speak. She learned piano, then guitar & began writing songs before she entered her teens. A couple of friends invited her to sing with them, & together they played at various local folk clubs. Since then she has performed all over the UK & Europe. She has released two solo albums - "Angel in Labour" in 1995 & "The Boatman’s White Dog" in 2007.

Debbie has played alongside many artists including John Martyn, Ian Matthews, Vikki Clayton, & Sally Barker, who has performed some of her songs, & with whom she sometimes co-writes; and she appeared as part of the Women on Stage tour with Sara K, Kerstin Blodig & Linde Nijland. Other projects include Cedusa, with writer/producer Rod Bowkett, & Invisible They.

Links:

www.reverbnation.com/womanwantstallman
www.myspace.com/womanwantstallman
www.soundclick.com/bands/default.cfm?bandID=429750
www.youtube.com/results?search_query="Woman+wants+tall+man"

Press:

“There are a lot of very talented musician''s out there but while there are loads of great players sometimes the missing ingredient is a great singer. So when I found the music of Shropshire born artist Debbie Cassell on the Podsafe Music Network I was absolutely enchanted - not only by the musical arrangements, but by Debbie''s voice." ~ Phil "Widds" Widdows, Folkcast Podcast - April 2007