Last month, award-winning singer Emily Portman received a message from a fan complimenting her “new album” and assuring her that “English folk music is in good hands.”
What sounded like praise left the Sheffield-based artist confused—because she hadn’t released any new album.
Curious, Portman clicked on the link the fan had included and was directed to a supposed new release titled Orca.
“It was online everywhere—Spotify, iTunes, all the streaming platforms,” she recalls. “But I didn’t recognise it, because I didn’t make it.”
As she listened, Portman realized the music was clearly AI-generated—but disturbingly familiar.
“It was singing in a folk style probably closest to mine that AI could produce,” she says. “The voice—meant to sound like mine—was slightly off, but close enough. And the instrumentation had the same eerie resemblance.”
AI-generated music is nothing new, often surfacing under invented names or mimicking famous artists. But what made this case unusual was that Orca appeared on Portman’s actual artist pages—something typically not seen, even with AI renditions of deceased musicians.
Also on today’s show –
Thirteen unreleased Beatles tracks are set to feature on a new Anthology compilation – almost 30 years since the last.
Birthday –
1942 – Daryl Dragon, American keyboard player and songwriter (died 2019) known as Captain from the pop musical duo Captain & Tennille with his wife, Toni Tennille.
Martin’s Choice – This song request was inspired by your mention on last weeks show of the late great Irish singer songwriter Phil Lynott from the band “Thin Lizzy” who’s birthday it was last week. It made me think of fellow “Thin Lizzy” band member Robert William Gary Moore who was born on April 4, 1952 and who sadly passed away on February 6, 2011. He was a famous musician from Northern Ireland and was an amazing guitarist and singer. Throughout his career Gary played in many different bands. He explored various music styles, including blues, hard rock, heavy metal and jazz fusion.
Gary Moore was inspired by guitar legends like Peter Green and Eric Clapton and started his music journey in the late 1960s when he joined a band called “Skid Row” and went on to release two albums with them. After leaving “Skid Row,” he joined the band “Thin Lizzy”where he played with his friend Phil Lynott.
Gary also had a very successful solo career, his song “Parisienne Walkways” from 1978 became a big hit and is still one of his most famous songs. In the 1980s, he focused on hard rock and heavy metal music, then in 1990, he went back to his blues roots with the album “Still Got The Blues” This album became the biggest success of his career.
Many people called Gary Moore a virtuoso meaning he was incredibly skilled at playing the guitar, other guitarists often say he influenced their music. Magazines like “Total Guitar”and “Louder” have named him one of the greatest guitarists ever. Irish singer songwriter Bob Geldof called him “one of the great Irish bluesmen.” Gary was also known for playing a special 1959 Gibson Les Paul guitar that had once belonged to Peter Green. Later, famous guitar companies Gibson and Fender honoured him with their own Gary Moore signature guitars.
The song I’m going to request I mentioned earlier, it’s “Parisienne Walkways”
Although the song is credited to Gary Moore the band “Thin Lizzy” provided the music backing and frontman Phil Lynott sung the Vocals on the single.
The story goes that Gary Moore had written the music for the song and played it to Phil Lynott who said he thought the music sounded French ? Phil Lynott then came up with the lyrics for the song which has a very French theme but that was never Gary Moore’s original intention for the song!
It’s a great song and shows off Gary Moore’s incredible guitar playing perfectly.
I’m going to add a slight twist and ask that you play the live version of this song which is played and sung by Gary More himself.
Enjoy !
You can listen to the show here – 
