Martin Harley & Band
Martin Harley
Entry Requirements: 18+ after 7pm
MARTIN HARLEY
Martin Harley has been making music and touring the world for over two decades. His sound has never been more down to earth. Exploring roots, blues and slide guitar in a style The Guardian referred to as ‘Spellbinding’, Harley has released nine albums to date, four recorded on home soil and four across the Atlantic in Texas and Nashville.
Martin shows are known for mixing excellent musicianship and songwriting with a down to earth sense of humour and tales of 3 decades of world travel.
In 2022 Martin released and toured the Harley Kimbro Lewis album with Grammy nominated Daniel Kimbro and Sam Lewis which received excellent reviews.
Martins recent nominations include, AMA instrumentalist of the year, Best Acoustic Guitarist, Best Acoustic Blues artist. Notable appearances include Glastonbury Acoustic and Avalon stages, Beautiful Days, Royal Albert Hall, Union Chapel, Bluebird Nashville, Tønder Festival, The Troubadour LA and at home round the fire pit with his two daughters.
Line Up
Martin Harley is a supremely talented acoustic roots and blues guitarist, singer and songwriter with a burgeoning global reputation.
Live at Southern Ground, his eagerly anticipated new album, was recorded in Nashville in collaboration with Daniel Kimbro (Jerry Douglas, Larkin Poe) on upright bass.
As Martin explains “I wanted to make something representative of where I’m at musically at the moment with an album that reflects on the last year solo and duo touring. Daniel and I met in Knoxville through a mutual friend… he handed me his card which read… ‘alright guitar player… good upright bass player’ … an understatement on both parts!”
A mixture of retrospective solo and duo arrangements recorded during an afternoon at the esteemed Southern Ground studio in Nashville, Live at Southern Ground features Martin on Weissenborn… a traditional Hawaiian acoustic guitar played across the lap, resonators and archtops, and of course Daniel Kimbro on upright bass.
“It’s a simple, honest and direct album with no overdubs in a warm sounding room with some great microphones and two new friends playing a few songs over a cold beer or two” says Martin. “There’s a great feeling when you click with someone. It frees you up to experiment with the arrangement and the dynamic of a song.”
Live at Southern Ground follows on from Martin’s five previously acclaimed albums, most recently Mojo Fix in 2012. Along with many years of international touring and countless festivals Martin has built a strong international fan-base across the globe.
Renowned for his prowess as a slide guitarist, Martin is almost unique in the UK in his playing lap slide. During year-round worldwide touring he’s absorbed a plethora of diverse influences, honing his craft into the classic songwriting style he possesses today.
In the US, Martin has headlined Music City Roots in Nashville and toured coast to coast with ZZ Ward, Delta Rae and opened for Iron and Wine, Bruce Hornsby, Five for Fighting, World Party, Beth Hart, Joe Bonamassa amongst many others.
