WOMAD

Eddie Martin Trio

From United Kingdom

Born in London in the 1960s, Eddie Martin has performed publicly since the age of 16 but only turned professional in 1999 when he won nominations for UK best blues album of the year and best UK blues guitarist of the year.He has played and recorded in one-man-band, electric and acoustic trio and big band formats, sharing stages with the best electric and acoustic players on the international scene, including Taj Mahal, Junior Wells, Kim Wilson, Rod Piazza, Robert Cray, John Hammond and John Mayall. Though a generation younger, he has now played and recorded with many of the greats of the British Blues Boom, including John Mayall, Paul Jones, Jon Hiseman and Dick Heckstall-Smith. His collaboration with the latter spans 5 cds including the WC Handy-nominated “Blues and Beyond” album.He is one of few recent UK bluesmen to have won recognition on the US blues circuit, and is a songwriter for Alligator Records. On his debut 1999 US tour, he was befriended by the Texas Blues community, played with U.P. Wilson and the late Robert Ealey many times. He recruited the ex-Smokin’ Joe Kubek rhythm section for 2 years of touring before recruiting his current band with UK bassist, Marion Dalton and Chicagoan Michael Wiedrich on drums (for full biogs see www.eddiemartin.com). In school choirs he showed early musical ability and from the time he first picked up the acoustic guitar at the age of 16 he began his education into roots music. From Bob Dylan and other folk guitarists he worked back through Woody Guthrie to early country blues. He formed his first band aged 16 writing a whole set with just three chords and some of his mother’s poetry for lyrics. A year later he bought his first electric guitar, studying British Rock guitarists like Jimmy Page, before being converted to electric blues by Freddie King’s “Burglar” album. His first blues band was called the Mysterons. Taking up rack harmonica at this time, he left school to work on the railway and gig at weekends.From the age of 17 he wrote songs relentlessly and studied every blues style he could, working back from Freddy King to T Bone Walker, and Delta and East Coast acoustic players. Working part-time in a furniture shop he would answer the phone in the evenings and practice the guitar, harmonica and songwriting. He first moved to Bristol in 1979 and has stayed there since, where he hosts a regular blues jam when not away on tour, and runs master classes for guitar and harmonica students.His bands, his guitar-playing and his 7 previous albums have all been rave-reviewed in the international press. He was nominated every year from 1996-2000 for various national blues awards. He tours constantly as an acoustic and electric player in solo or band formats, mainly in the EU but as far abroad as Jamaica, playing about 275-300 shows a year, in clubs and major festivals.His composing and arranging skills have led his music to be used for TV, Film and drama productions and his cds are regularly on the playlists of international blues radio programmes. In 2005 he has been an International Songwriting Competition finalist and will be a Judge of the World Blues Harmonica Championship.