Topic: Dom Martin
Newcastle Cluny2 March 30th
So, that's another one checked off the "must see" list, Dom Martin in a solo show, which are highly rated by the Blues cognoscenti. and it's obvious why.
This Irishman is engagingly open and candid about his backstory that sounds like it's lifted from the pages of an Irvine Walsh story but it helps to colour the story behind the music he plays and how he plays it. There's more than just feeling threaded between the predominantly Rory Gallagher and John Martyn biased covers and mix of biographical self-penned material, the covers aren't mere carbon copies, Martin here is interpreting them in his own way, that's stark, raw, but with an air of self-deprecation that holds his audience and draws them closer as the set very cleverly seems to shamble on, who else would ever consider Stanley Myers' Cavatina segueing into Gallagher's Western Plains?
In the end, 100 minutes just flew by and some great tunes resonated around the Cluny in this stripped back form. Now roll on October when we get to see this guy with a full band...