Such was the demand for Jeffrey Martin he added an early show to his already sold out later slot. This demand is testament to what I think was one of the best albums of last year the most excellent ‘Thank god we left the garden’. This early show too sold out and we are all here for a six thirty start time.
What follows was simply one of the best shows I have seen for a long time. With a voice that has hints of Johnny Cash and John Prine we are treated to ninety minutes of an acoustic country masterclass coupled with witty anecdotes, stories of mushrooms, mud and roller blades to name a few of the more random topics.
He is a big man and commands the tiny stage as the audience just sits in appreciative silence taking in each note and every syllable of each song.
As you would expect the new songs feature heavily but there is more than enough room for a couple that didn’t make the cut plus some oldies from the first two albums that I wasn’t as familiar with but rectified that by buying them at the gig.
On a night full of highlights ‘Red Station Wagon’, ‘Garden’ and the instant classic ‘Paper Crown’ were pure brilliance. The chess throw down song ‘Checkers’ brings an air of hilarity with its word play and wit. Not wanting to end the set he still found time to cram a final tune that ran for five minutes of the two minutes he was given.
I’m sure the both he and the audience would have stayed for another ninety minutes and the second sitting were in for a real treat.
Keep on acoustic, country, rockin’ y’all