Today’s planned post has been pre-empted for a Local Spotlight. News came out last night about Sacramento blues legend Mick Martin’s passing. I never had the pleasure of meeting him, but seeing so many of my friends’ tributes was really nice. What a life! I picked up this 2x CD set from my local Orangevale Goodwill about a year ago. Pretty much any time I see a local CD, I pick it up and I am glad I did! This thing has 31 songs, over 140 minutes of music! Bargain at twice the price.
Recorded by: David Houston, Wayne Smith and David Whitaker CD Extract and prep for upload by Shayne Stacy
Now a special announcement. In cooperation with Dennis Newhall from K-Zap dot org, we are starting a series of posts focused on Sacramento blues legend Mick Martin’s massive body of work.
Mick was the heart of the blues in Sacramento. He was the co-founder of the Sacramento Blues Society and released/appeared on over 40 albums and compilations- starting in the 1960’s with the band Joshua and performing into the 2020’s with hs band the Blues Rockers.
Mick passed away last year at the age of 76 years old. Today would have been his 77th birthday.
We will be releasing 2 Mick audio documents every 2 weeks, for the next 11 months- that’s how long it will take to put up his massive body of work! We still don’t know what to call the series- Months of Mick? Multitudes of Mick? Or maybe just something like the Mick Martin Memorial series.
Huge thanks to Mindy Giles for providing the majority of material for this project.
I figured it would be good to start with these 2: a “best of” which highlights his career, plus the Joshua demo from the 60’s, where it all started. Enjoy.
More images, liner notes, etc at sacramento music archive dot com- search for Mick Martin
Recorded by: The band Extract and prep for upload by Shayne Stacy From Mindy Giles and Dennis Newhall’s collections
Joshua- Demo 1960’s featuring Mick Martin xfer f/band archive tapes Psychedelic Blues
This is the one that started it all for Mick Martin- the band Joshua.
Here is what Mick had to say about it (taken from a Sacramento News and Review interview): “The first band of significance was called Joshua. We played at the Fillmore and we were a psychedelic band, but we were doing blues.”
The band was: Mick Martin- Lead Vocals and Harmonica Wayne Smith- Lead Guitar and Vocals Ray Halverson- Lead Guitar Larry Sherwood- Bass and Back-up Vocals Rick Yarrison- Drums
Recorded by: The band Extract and prep for upload by Shayne Stacy From Mindy Giles and Dennis Newhall’s collections
It’s time for another installment of the Mick Martin Memorial Series. This is a project in collaboration with Dennis Newhall (K-ZAP dot org), Mindy Giles (Sacramento Blues Society) and the Sacramento Music Archive. Mick was so prolific that even with 2 releases every other week, we have over 10 months of material to share! Wow!! This week, we have 2 CD releases- one from 1997 and one from around 2009 or 2010. This one does not have a date listed on the CD, but the back photo was taken from a 40th anniversary Woodstock gathering which would place it in about 2009 or 2010. This CD seems to be mostly live with the bonus track being a studio recording. Even though this release is labeled as “Mick Martin”, it is a full band performance.
Recorded by: The band Extract from CD and prep for upload by Shayne Stacy
The Next one is a 1997 live CD at Sutter Street Saloon, which is now the location of the Powerhouse Pub in old town Folsom.
Recorded by: The band and the people you see in credits here Extract from CD and prep for upload by Shayne Stacy
Joshua- Freeborn Hall, UC Davis Ca 3/14/70 transfer from band archive tape:
I’m late with the bi-weekly Mick Martin Memorial series of posts! Well, it’s still Tuesday so I am ok.
At this point, I think anyone following this page/channel knows that I get REAL excited with old archival live performances that predate my taping. A live show from Freeborn Hall in 1970?? That’s gotta be the earliest document from that venue. Amazing. It took a lot of discipline for me to not post this one right away when I started the Mick memorial, but the quality on this one, while great for 1970, is not perfect. I tried rebalancing it and no workie- it made the highs super harsh.
Recorded by: ? Transfer by:? (from Dennis Newhall’s collection I think)
Mick Martin and the Blues Rockers- Winning Hand independently released CD 1999
and here is the 2nd post for week 3- I am trying to give 1 studio and 1 live document each week. This might be the deepest kick drum I have ever heard on a commercially released cd. It woke me up over here!
Track list: 1 I Bought It for You 2 Everybody gets the Blues 3 Don’t Panic 4 In The Dark of the Night 5 Wonderful World 6 Burn The House Down 7 Life on the Road 8 You Ain’t Foolin’ Me 9 Empty Place 10 Shining Star 11 Mastercharge 12 Notch on my Gun 13 Mustang Sally 14 House of the Rising Sun
Martin Memorial Series from Mindy Giles and Dennnis Newhall’s collections
