A PENARTH singer songwriter has received a top honour at the International Folk Music Awards in the USA.

Martyn Joseph was presented with a Spirit of Folk Award at the Folk Alliance International convention at the Folly Theatre in Kansas.

The awards are presented to honour and celebrate people actively involved in the promotion and preservation of folk music through their creative work, their community building, and their demonstrated leadership.

Mr Joseph has become a celebrated artist on both sides of the Atlantic over his 33-year career and has been dubbed "The Welsh Springsteen."

Five years ago, Mr Joseph met his wife Justine Ferland at Folk Alliance and together they developed the UK charity Let Yourself Trust which has been actively involved in combatting social injustice, supporting grassroots projects all over the world from helping rebuild a demolished family home in Palestine to leading a 25-strong team in the creation of a music centre in a Guatemalan children’s village and getting involved in Advantage Africa’s Albinism project in Uganda.

Accepting his award from Folk Alliance International’s Barbara Manners, Mr Joseph said he was humbled.

“These are strange days and we need good songs to remind us of who we really are. The real danger is cynicism and fear. We are a big army and we should be making a hell of a noise right now and I’m proud to be part of that rumble."

Let Yourself Trust, whose patron is broadcaster Bob Harris OBE, has raised some £250,000 since its inception with recent projects including helping to clean a mercury poisoned river on a Canadian reserve, aiding the homeless at a Swansea refuge, supporting a teenage mental health project in Boston, USA and backing a mobile school initiative which provides education for street children in 25 countries.

Meanwhile back in the UK Martyn was also honoured with a Lifetime Achievement Award by FATEA Magazine in their annual folk awards.

FATEA’s Neil King said: "Martyn Joseph has done more than create great music for a long period; it's about the way he uses music and the recognition built up to put back into the wider community, focusing his attention towards trade justice, third world debt cancellation and human rights."

Just after receiving the award Martyn played the famous Half Moon, Putney and was joined on stage by friend and Welsh actor/comedian Rob Brydon to sing Bruce Springsteen’s Thunder Road.

Two years ago, Joseph was also nominated at the AIM Independent Music Awards in London – in the closely contested category of Hardest Working Band or Artist whilst he has also been recognised with an Amnesty International Award for his support of Brazil’s MST Landless Workers’ Movement.

He is also a previous winner of the Best Male Artist title in the BBC Welsh Music Awards.

Mr Joseph, who was invited by the English Folk Dance and Song Society’s (EFDSS) to write and take part in the Parliament-instigated democracy-celebrating project Sweet Liberties, has recently started recording his 33rd album which will be produced by in demand Gerry Diver and released next autumn.