The enigmatic Jeff Martin, former front man of the Tea Party, is bringing his two-man show to Medicine Hat this Sunday.
Martin and legendary percussionist Wayne Sheehy are preparing to entrance Medicine Hat audiences with their blend of acoustic instrumentation and thunderous drums — this pair is a sight to behold.
"This is a two-man show and Wayne plays a percussion kit that has to be seen to be believed," said Martin. "The two of us, even though I'll only be playing acoustic guitars, it sounds like a five-piece rock band."
It's going to be one of the last shows the duo plays in that style, before Martin embarks back to the dark and dirty sounds of rock and roll for his second affair.
His new release and new trio, The Armada, is scheduled to come out this October and Martin predicts it's just what his Tea Party fans have been pining for.
"This is me back to some pretty serious rock and roll music," said Martin. "This thing is a monster."
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So Martin and Sheehy started writing a record in Martin's Irish studio with the intention of making a hybrid acoustic-rock sound.
"It didn't quite turn out that way, you know," said Martin with a chuckle. "And all of a sudden, things were getting heavier and heavier and heavier . . . before I knew it, I'm faced with this beautiful monster."
The two creative forces felt it didn't make sense to deem it a Jeff Martin record — as that scenario was acoustic troubadour.
"We were like, what the hell is this?" he said. "It's massive, but what do we make of this?"
That's when Sheehy commented, "It's kind of like the Spanish Armada . . . attacking you from all fronts."
So with a new trio in force, the Armada will release its first record and then get set to tour Australia, Canada and beyond.
"I'm excited about it again, and I've certainly got the music to back it up again," said Martin of the rock and roll industry. "I think Tea Party fans, they've been very supportive over these last couple of years of my solo venture . . . and I would say probably patient as well, because they've been waiting for me to make this kind of record again."
"So here it comes and like I said, it's a monster."
A new chapter is about to be written in the career of former Tea Party vocalist/guitarist Jeff Martin with the announcement that his new band, The Armada is about to be launched at the end of the year.
Jeff Martin will be touring the country to discuss and promote his new band and its debut release and while here preparing the onslaught, he will perform solo acoustic shows in Melbourne, Sydney, Adelaide, Brisbane & Perth following his sell out shows earlier this year. Truly the calm before The Armada storm…
Releasing his debut solo album in 2006, 'Exile and The Kingdom' and quickly followed by 2 live albums - the double CD 'Live in Brisbane with the Toronto Tabla Ensemble' and the most recent, 'Live In Dublin', 2007 also saw Jeff releasing his first live DVD through Shock, 'Live at The Enmore Theatre'.
Jeff will be performing a set of Tea Party classics and rarities as well as covering his solo offerings – and maybe even a sneak preview of some Armada material.
These are the final acoustic shows before Jeff's Les Paul will take centre stage with The Armada. These are also in fact the very first completely solo acoustic shows Jeff has performed in Australia.
On the myspacemusic player you can now listen to an instrumental version of 'Morroco...
The Aramda will be released in October 2008 via Kingdom Records as a limited edtion DigiPack, only available on Jeff Martin's website! More news to follow...
Jeff Martin is nearly done working on his second solo studio album. The new songs were recorded in his studio in Ireland. Jeff played all guitars, bass and keyboards while Wayne P. Sheehy took care of the drums and percussion.
Although a tracklisting hasn't been revealed so far, song titles that are expected to be featured are 'Morroco', 'Going Down Blues' and 'A Line In The Sand'.
Rumour has it that the album coalesces middle eastern influences, blues and dark moody-sounding songs, which are reminiscent of songs from The Tea Party's '97 era release, Transmission.
No release date has been decided upon yet, but the album should be out late summer/early fall 2008, followed by a world-wide tour.
Check out the following websites for regular updates over the next weeks...
http://www. jeff-martin. net http://www. myspace. com/jeffmartinandthearmada http://www. myspace. com/jeffmartinsolo
We would like to thank the fans for the fantastic time we had in Germany! The Hamburg show, which was streamed live, is still up on ligx.de or directly viewable here (inlc. the support band):
There are some new live photos up in the photos section from the recent Bonn show.
So folks, what's the news from the Jeff Martin camp. It's been scarce of late so lets get up to date with what's happening, for there surely is a lot going on. Jeff's just back from glorious Australia where, apart from a short break he produced some tracks for up and coming Freo band Stillfire, and managed to squeeze in an intimate gig at Friends restaurant in Perth.
Upon his return to Ireland it was straight into the work with a couple of days jamming and writing with Wayne at a secret location on the edge of the world, then back to Kingdom Studios to complete the recording of the new Armada album. As one privy to the new tunes I can tell you now, hang on to your hats, for this is some powerful stuff. Everything you ever loved about Jeff's music is here, multiplied by ten with the addition of Waynes powerhouse drumming. Wait until you hear this, it is truly a huge sound.
After that it is hoped to complete final mixing mid July, with an early to mid Autumn release date. In the meantime we're all off to Germany for some dates, (check out the gig list for the details). These will be in the two piece acoustic format, and if you haven't seen this show, you must, for you have never seen two people rock as much as Jeff and Wayne on acoustic guitars and hand drums. That's followed by a close up and personal solo show in Holland, then back to the Emerald Isle to get things in motion for the forthcoming Armada tour. Watch out, there's something special heading your way.
Jeff Martin will play a solo(!) show on August 3rd at Het Front in Vroomshoop! This will be the only Holland date this summer! More infos at http://www.frontvroomshoop.nl
Am 30. Juli kehrt Jeff Martin zurück nach Hamburg um im Logo das einzige Headliner Konzert der kleinen Sommer Tour zu spielen! Es folgen 3 weitere Termine in Bonn, Trier und Fulda als - man höre und staune - Vorband von In Extremo!
