BOB MARTIN: NEWS

Happy New Year!

Bob played live and talked about Midwest Farm Disaster today on WUML's Sunrise Radio ~ Jan 15

Click here to listen to the interview with Bob Martin
http://communications.uml.edu/sunrise/?p=1095

Bob Martin will perform on January 19th at The Brewery Exchange in Lowell to celebrate the reissue of Midwest Farm Disaster. Tickets can be purchased online through PayPal at this link: http://www.eastcoastimage.net/shows.html
or at the door on the night of the show. Tickets are $10 in advance and $12 at the door. Show time is 8pm. Frank Morey and Sandy Spence open.

Come early and enjoy some fine food & beverage at The Brewery Exchange!

We are so pleased to announce that Midwest Farm Disaster is now available for the first time on cd. You can find it on CD Baby and Amazon. There is a direct link off of our "Buy It" page to CD Baby.

We began the licensing process in Jan 2007 after a dinner conversation on New Year's day. It was a labor of love and we are proud to reissue the album in conjunction with its 35th anniversary.

Enjoy!

Bob Martin’s Midwest Farm Disaster will be available on CD as of November 17


(Salem, NH. – Nov 2007) – Riversong Records has announced the re-issue of Bob Martin’s Midwest Farm Disaster in celebration of the 35th anniversary of its original release by RCA Victor. The record has been out of print since the mid 1970’s, however it’s popularity has remained strong and after years of fan requests, Bob Martin put the recording onto compact disc and made it available on his own imprint.

Martin recorded Midwest Farm Disaster at Nashville Studios in 1972 after he was discovered at Gerde’s Folk City in NYC by label reps who signed him to RCA Victor. He worked closely with Chet Atkins, a studio executive at the time and exceptional musicians including drummer Kenneth Buttrey, a key player on Bob Dylan's Blonde on Blonde album.

"I never expected the long-term reaction to Midwest Farm Disaster. I get email from younger musicians who name it as a musical and political influence." says Martin. "Chet Atkins told me during the making of the album that it was before its time in terms of the political message. Now it’s getting attention from bloggers and critics as an ‘important’ record."

The CD will feature the original cover art by Peter Barss and contains the original eleven tracks:


Captain Jesus
Third War Rag
Mill Town
Changes in Me
Old Rass
Sister Rose and the First Salvation Band
Midwest Farm Disaster
Frog Dick South Dakota
Blind Marie
Charlie Zink
Deer Island Prison


Bob Martin has enjoyed a performing career spanning more than forty years and recorded several albums including the recent The River Turns the Wheel and Next To Nothin’ for Riversong Records. His releases have received numerous accolades, industry awards and extensive airplay on folk, country and Americana radio programs around the world. Martin has recently returned to performing live and is working on a new album of original material slated for summer 2008.

The compact disc release of Midwest Farm Disaster will be available online at www.cdbaby.com, www.amazon.com and at retail outlets as of November 17th.

Recently at Riversong we have been talking about Kerouac and the impact he's had on writers during the 50 years since On The Road was published. We asked Bob to recall his meeting with Jack Kerouac and here is what he wrote up for us:

I met Jack Kerouac in 1963. I was twenty-one and had recently discovered the jazz bands and nightlife wailing from the seedy bars and nightclubs along Moody Street in my hometown of Lowell, Massachusetts. I had come of age amid the wild interplay of hustlers, pimps, part time showgirls, saxophone players performing for the cowgirl bands at the Silver Star Lounge, soldiers on leave from Fort Devens with would-be downtown gangsters. There were workers on the nightshift from the shoe shop and the mills and sad comics opening for tired tap dancers, a frantic sea of people jostling and shouldering their way through the crowded Saturday-night streets, many of them desperate to make intimate connections.

Kerouac stood alone on the sidewalk in front of Chuck’s bar. I recognized him standing in the red neon light, smoking a cigarette. I had finished reading “On the Road” and stood near him, struggling to say something, too shy to speak. There were questions that I wanted to ask. He looked at me and said a few words that were lost in the roar of dance tunes that thundered from the open door of Chuck’s bar. He looked around as if he was searching for someone. I watched him walk away and vanish alone in the crowd.

Hi,
Just wanted to thank Tami Keaveny for setting up this web site. She wanted me to let you know what I've been doing. I've completed writing Mule's Moon: The True Life and Times of a Mountain Community and an Appalachian Drug Cartel. It's a completed creative non-fiction work, 83,000 words in length. I'm still in search of an agent. I've also found some time to write a new batch of music and will eventually get into the studio. Thanks for your support and interest in the music.
Bob Martin

Thanks to all who've written in with kind words. Many have asked about Midwest Farm Disaster. Stay tuned for news on re-releasing both Midwest Farm Disaster and Last Chance Rider.
In addition, we should be posting some spring/summer show dates over the next month.
We've just been added on iTunes and we have some free downloads at www.last.fm.

More to come in '07!