When Jeffery Martin wasn’t writing, recording, and performing his sensitive insightful songs – poetic slices of everyday life – he was teaching high school English. One weekend he flew to L.A. for gigs, grading essays on the flights to-and-fro, then back to the classroom on Monday. It was a hectic schedule until he finally decided maybe it was time to give up the day job to become a full-time troubadour. There’s a deceptive simplicity to Martin’s songs, mostly his voice and an acoustic guitar. But you will be absorbed by his moving, melancholy lyricism. One critic calls his songs “music, poetry and observations aimed directly at your soul.”

Martin’s latest recording grew out of mostly solitary demo sessions recorded in a backyard shack. He says the sounds he got with two cheap microphones in the rustic DIY studio resulted in the honesty he was searching for on 2023’s Thank God We Left The Garden, an album critics call “warm, gritty, earthy and welcoming.” Martin says the studio is fine, but playing for audiences is best. “There is a magic that can never be contained on a recording. Both are important, but if I had to choose one it would be live shows every time.”

— Eric Rosenbaum