Re: Concerts you've been to recently
Posted: Fri July 22, 2016 4:39 pm
Tell me about Martin Sexton, J. You're the only guy I've ever heard mention him. What's his story?
His second record 'Black Sheep' was also independently made; produced by Crit Harmon. It's gorgeous. A bit more budget and polish than his first record but still raw and soulful and stripped down in the best sense. It's one of my all time favorite albums ever by anyone, like top 10 of all time. I highly recommend checking it out. It's his best songwriting to date; front to back, the album is consistently brilliant. So much soul, so much talent and vision. A real American, traveling singer album.
After 'Black Sheep' Atlantic Records grabbed him up (because he's fucking amazing). He released two records for them. 'The American' was decent but really just a big budget rehash of 'Black Sheep' with some of the same songs appearing, just re-recorded with a lush studio budget. I don't like the new version quite as much, on the balance, they're a tab over-produced and too big and shiny.
The Atlantic experience was terrible for him. He left them after his second record ('Wonderbar') and started his own label called Kitchen Table Records. He's produced all of his albums since and released everything through KTR. Around the same time Pearl Jam started releasing offcial bootlegs, Martin did the same. For about two years he recorded every show and made them available at the venue after for those who purchased before the show started. He's abandoned that now. But it was a great experiment and I was able to grab more than a few of the bootlegs from the tour in 2004.
He's a good songwriter who has managed to make about a dozen brilliant songs. But his real talent/draw is his live show. His voice and vocal range are unreal. He's a fucking angel. And he plays guitar like it's the easiest thing in the world but he'd doing things I've never seen. When he plays live, he usually plays alone, so all the sounds are him. He hears the music in his head and tries to replicate it with just his voice and his guitar.
He tends to play off the cuff a lot and his arrangements are almost always different from night to night. He plays with his soul; pure feeling and emotion. I've seen him live more than anyone else. And each time I cry. It's rapturous.
His songs range from pure blues to folk to rock to bluegrass to swing to gospel to Americana. He pulls from a ton of genres and calls the usual suspects -- Billy Preston, Prince, John Lennon, Led Zeppelin, Bob Dylan and Tom Waits -- major influences.
There's just a genuine grace and undeniable energy at his shows. He connects to the music he's playing and to the crowd in an authentic way that cuts. At every show I've been to there have been people around me who have never heard/seen him play before. Every show, literally, every show I hear a handful of people say, "holy shit" and "I wasn't expecting that" and "I can't believe what I just saw."
He's a treasure. Sometimes he can be cheesy as all hell but he's always having fun and he keeps his heart on his sleeve. A great guy that I've had the pleasure of speaking to three times (including last night).
If you'd like to start the journey I'd say pick up Black Sheep or his Live Wide Open record. That's a 2 disc live album that he recorded over several dates/venues on tour back in the early 2000/2001. That tour he played with a drummer. But all the other sounds you hear on the record are him. It's fantastic. And helps shed a sliver of light on what you're in for when you see him in person.
So, yeah, honestly, the best way to experience him is live. The first record I heard by him was Wonderbar. Which is fine; again, it's too clean and polished and "studio-y" and doesn't reflect what he's best at. But he played much of the album live the first time I saw him and my jaw hit the floor. Watching him rearrange his own stuff like that and riff with himself and sing from some unearthly place... it's a miracle.
And that's Martin Sexton.
