That’s a long yardstick to be measured by, and to be truthful, if his new album, A Savage Life, is any indication, his place of origin, and a fondness for the acoustic as much as the electric guitar, are the only real similarities.

Opening track ‘Unsatisfied’ is a neat enough introduction, fitting snuggly into that rugged and raw dirty old school blues rock approach. By way of contrast, ‘Here Comes The River’, with its gentle electric guitar chord sequence calls to mind Paul Kossoff’s early work, Martin’s soft-deep sighing voice is more effective here too, as too the melody notes and solos played; the song being imbued with a fragile beauty that refuses to be rushed.

Admirably similar in intent if not approach, with a more general blues rock approach is ‘Blues On The Bay’, a song reflecting on times gone by. The track features a fuller band sound, albeit only bass guitarist Dave Thompson and drummer Laurence McKeown are the only other accompanists on the album. While Martin himself maybe in reminiscent mode, continuing with ‘The Man From Nowhere’ I too find myself thinking back nostalgically to children’s stop-motion TV puppet shows like Camberwick Green and Trumpton. Not what I would have thought the guitarist had in mind for this acoustic rag, but it certainly brough a smile to my face listening to it.

Next up, ‘12 Gauge’ is sure-fire Gallagher-style riffing meets ZZ Top boogie stomping. There’s some rather nice slide that’s powerful and subtle in pretty much equal measures with a Tony McPhee (of Groundhogs fame) meets John Martyn growling vocal over the top – In fact, in playing back the tracks again, I found ever more similarities to the late Scottish singer/guitarist, both vocally and in certain six string approaches. Most notably, the Celtic-touched ‘Echoes’, a song about familial loss; here his voice, pitched deep, comes across particularly like Martyn’s, while with this finger-picked acoustic number it’s the spaces between that are as important as the notes played.

‘Drink In Blue Colours’ is late-night tipsy jazz-tinted blues, Higher whoops and deep mumbling lyrics imbue, if not imbibe, the song prior to it walking a straight-line, eyes closed with a vintage Bluesbreakers’ styled Clapton solo that cuts short just as you wait for it to ignite further, falling back into its tripped-out jazzier opening with a more Cream-derived solo.

Continuing the theme of partaking of too much, while also following an electric number with an acoustic, is the folk rag tune that is ‘Addict’. Then the pace changes with instrumental that is ‘Maxwell Shuffle’ – It’s bright and breezy blues rock, with a number of lines that call to mind other tunes and artists, from Freddy King’s ‘Hideaway’ on, but taking in aspects of Hendrix, Gallagher, Clapton and Alvin Lee too, the whole piece proving headshakingly entertaining.

‘The Parting Glass’ is a mournful Scottish lament, apparently from “around the 1760s”, and often played at wakes. Once more, I’m sorry for mentioning a near namesake, but I’m sure John Martyn is looking down from his fluffy white cloud with raised eyebrows in mock surprise while wearing a beaming smile at Dom Martin’s performance here.

The acoustic numbers on this album work best for me, he doesn’t get over-flashy in his playing, but his approach is uniquely appropriate for those particular songs, and you can see why he’s received those UK Blues Awards. Dom Martin is an artist whose body of work I intend to delve into a lot more.

Dom Martin – A Savage Life is available by clicking here.

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Ahead of that comes ‘Echoes’, the second single taken from the new album, that’s available to stream and download from here, and an official music video that you can watch right here at RAMzine.

Discussing the single, Martin said: “’Echoes‘ is about loss and finding things that used to belong to souls that have passed on,” he continued: “It’s a song about ghostly things and memories of the past and I guess it was inspired by me returning to Belfast after periods away during difficult times in my life.

Produced by Grammy nominated Chris O’Brien, A Savage Life was recorded in Belfast and Dublin during the second half of 2021. The new album features songs arranged by Dom (guitar and vocals), accompanied by Dave Thompson (bass guitar) and Laurence McKeown(drums). 

“So, this is the dreaded second studio album,” said Martin of the record. “In some respects, the new album is like my 2019 debut album Spain To Italy, but still very different.

“It’s a mixture of acoustic solo and electric just like the first one, however, on this new one, I really wanted to keep this album under-produced so I can reproduce the tracks in a live setting. Similarly, to the Spain To Italy album, the tracks on A Savage Life are mostly based on my own life experiences.”

“I seldom like listening to my own work, but I am proud of what I’ve done on the new album. I think I’ve got that under-produced sound I wanted. Many of the tracks were just one take and that’s the way I like it.”

“A Savage Life is another part of my life story and is also, in a small part, in memory of a great friend who passed away in 2021. It’s my blues, it’s real and I have to live with it!”

A Savage Life features the tracks ‘Unsatisfied’, ‘Here Comes The River’, ‘Blues On The Bay’, The Man From Nowhere’, ‘12 Gauge’, ‘Echoes’, ‘Drink In Blue Colours’, ‘Addict’, ‘Maxwell Shuffle’ and ‘The Parting Glass (Trad. arr)’.

Current single ‘Echoes’ was was preceded by the single ‘12 Gauge’ back in January. You can still stream and download from it here, and also watch the video here at RAMzine. While, A Savage Life is available to pre-order from here.

Hailed by many as the blues’ biggest Irish export since the iconic guitarist Rory Gallagher, in May this year Martin will be the UK representative at The International Blues Challenge in Memphis, USA. 

In 2021 he won the Acoustic Blues Act of The Year at the UK Blues Awards for the second consecutive year, as well as being nominated for Blues Instrumentalist of The Year and Emerging Artist of The Year. 

Martin will support Eric Gales on dates in the UK from 2nd – 8th June. Tickets are available from The Gig Cartel.

He will follow the Gales tour with an early November UK tour to promote his new album A Savage Life, that will also include festival performances.

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