Tom Martin - Vocals, Guitars, Mandolin, Harmonica
Bill Green - Bass Guitar and Double Bass
Pete Wingate - Alto Sax, Soprano Sax, Flute, Keyboards
Glyn Phillips - Drumkit, Congas, (and more percussion than you can shake a stick at . . .)
Influences
OK, this is an interesting one; because in reality the band sounds only like itself. Yeah, I know a lot of bands say that, but any influences we have are unconscious and have more to do with our individual musical backgrounds than any desire to emulate others.
The band plays original numbers by Tom (who manages to be both incredibly prolific and deeply observant and meaningful at the same time), but with a few covers as well. It's a very difficult band to label - in fact it is actively 'label-resistant' - but with the members coming from backgrounds steeped variously in folk, rock, blues, jazz, country, pop, rock'n'roll, acoustic and latin-american there is a rich musical heritage to draw from.
Tom himself describes it, when asked, as covering "from Celtic Soul to Acoustic Rock'n'Roll". The nearest 'overall vibe' is probably similar to his fellow Belfast compatriot Van Morrison (ie imagine trying to label VMs output!), though Tom cites his musical heroes as including Bob Dylan, John Lennon, Paul Simon, Leonard Cohen, Bert Jansch, to name but a few. Ask the rest of the band and you'll get different opinions again!
If you've seen the Tom Martin Band before you'll know to expect a great night of powerful songs delivered in Tom's unique gravelly-yet-soft voice, exquisite finger-picking and slide-guitar playing on acoustic and electric, backed by Pete's alternately exhilarating and dreamy alto and soprano saxes, flute and keyboards, Bill's beautifully crafted basslines and Glyn's percussive soundscapes on congas, cajón, drumkit and all manner of bells, cymbals, shakers etc, etc.
The full band allows Tom's music to expand itself ever outwards as the different members each bring something new to the tunes. The current line-up has been together since 1999 and have two albums to date: "Old Stones" (2001) and "Darkness & Beauty" (2006). You can hear some tracks from the latter on the player below.
Sounds Like
"Darkness and Beauty" (2006) - the Tom Martin Band
In the player below are six songs from our last album - hope you enjoy them.
There's a new upload page on the www. reariverroots. com site. Musicians can add music, video and photos. It would be good to test it out and spread the word, the more content the better. It's using the Creative Commons licence: free to share / non-commercial (personal use only). How about some of your fine songs up there too? Also added recently, Ash Mandrake review and player in the music page.
I'm playing TOS tonight and should be practicing and changing strings but I'm just enjoying listening to "Old Stones" - such a fine vibe and great songwriting. See you later.
' love the new song Tom! Smoooooth! The band sounds great and I'm a big fan of that deep brown gravy bass :-). Hope to see you at the Tower tomorrow night if Bill has space.
