Angela Faye Martin: press

The librarian and her guitar
Angela Faye Martin channels a love of literature into her own folk tunes
by Jason Bugg in Vol. 14 / Iss. 21 on 12/19/2007

Like most local musicians, Angela Faye Martin has a day job. In her case, it’s at a library—which, upon listening to Martin’s music, seems an obvious fit. Authors and literary allusions pop in and out of her songs, which are often played and sung with a certain hush that simultaneously suggests an uncommon intimacy and the fear of getting shushed by the old lady at the reference desk. To Martin, the books that surround her 9-to-5 life aren’t just a paycheck; they are a compulsion and—more often than not—a muse.
“Literary figures and what they might think of this era haunt my thoughts,” Martin reveals. “I’ve felt some responsibility to my favorite writers for my love of writing. I also think it’s important to re-contextualize art figures into our time.”

The literary obsession that seems to drive Martin is also a success model of sorts.

“A good book drives you to your knees in gratitude when you’ve read it,” she says.

Martin’s own outlet, however, is songwriting.

“I’ve written songs since I was a teen and played with some good musicians before leaving songwriting and performing about 12 years ago,” she notes.
Ultimately, Martin’s departure from music for her other passion, conservationism, caused her to not only leave her roots in northern Georgia for the Western North Carolina mountains, but also turned out to be the source of an unexpected creative spark: meeting fellow singer/songwriter Thomas Rain Crowe.

“I learned a lot in doing [conservation work], but my path is back on music and writing now,” Martin reports. “I might not have met Thomas if it hadn’t been for taking that turn on the conservation path.” She recalls that she first encountered Crowe at a conservation roundtable hosted by a friend at Brevard College.

“I was impressed with his humble demeanor, considering his stature as a well-known author and poet,” she says. “He gardens and rocks, which is high in my book. He’s been a friend and mentor ever since we met.”

Crowe, who will be headlining a performance at The Grey Eagle, which also features Martin, is a local poet, publisher and recording artist who first made a name for himself as part of the so-called “Baby Beat” clique of poets in mid-’70s San Francisco. It’s no surprise that Martin’s co-conspirator is also something of a bookworm.
But books aren’t the only things that tickle Martin’s fancy. Much like the music she creates, her inspirations as a musician run the gamut from jazzy standards to creepy lullabies to classic rock staples.

“Right now, I’m listening to a lot of Sparklehorse and Nina Simone,” she says. “But I grew up playing along to British-invasion rock.”

Although her influences are wide-ranging, Martin is her own artist. Her songs are instantly familiar, with occasional emotional arcs that seem to erupt from the speakers. More than just her voice and literary-leaning lyrics, her songs feature layer upon layer of observations, inside jokes and confessions. What’s more, her songs work as a time capsule of sorts, chronicling her journey in the most personal way possible.

“I just want to feel like I’ve expressed something that I can’t convey any other way,” she offers. “It’s an avenue for connecting with something that transcends time and certainly my brief existence.”

And you thought the Dewey Decimal System was complex.

[Jason Bugg is a freelance writer based in Asheville.]

There’s a playfulness in the lyrics of Angela Faye Martin, a Georgia musician currently based out of Franklin, NC. Her debut EP One Dark Vine is a sparse affair that lets her vocals shine, and her wry Southern storytelling recalls the clever turns of early Vic Chesnutt.

REVIEWS:
Angela Faye Martin | One Dark Vine
One of the nice things about being a musician today is the freedom we have to pretty well do whatever we want. We can record our own CD’s, release them ourselves, use privately owned recording studios to handle anything we can’t do on our own (mixing, mastering) and generally sidestep the whole lack of artistic control that comes with being “signed.” Of course, we also miss out on the huge recording budgets and fancy catering services and distribution and fame and fortune. Oh well.
Franklin-based singer/songwriter Angela Faye Martin’s One Dark Vine falls into this do-it-yourself ethic nicely. The production is sparse with many songs using only violin or Hammond organ to accompany Martin’s vocals and acoustic guitar. Most of it was recorded in her home. There are no drums, but the way she plays the guitar adds a percussive drive to all of the tunes, demonstrated clearly in the intro to “Cassiopeia” and the verse of “Wicked Girl.” The CD packaging looks good and maintains the “homegrown” quality, right down to the vine doodles on the foldout and CD tray insert.
When it comes to stylistic similarities, things get tricky — cliches come flying out of nowhere. The sudden jumps into falsetto on “Cassiopeia” certainly call to mind Joni Mitchell, but overall the super quirky delivery of Victoria Williams, or some of the roughness (in a good way) of Lucinda Williams’ vocals are points of reference. Oleg Melnikov’s violin adds a Southern Gothic quality to the bridge of “Cassiopeia.” Producer and engineer Michael Youngwood adds a B3 melody to the chorus of “Twenty White Flowers,” which made me think of Yo La Tengo and The Who simultaneously. That almost never happens.
One of Martin’s primary strengths is her lyricism. There’s a haziness and playful quality to the imagery, as in “Mary Shelley’s Hair,” where she ponders whether Shelley would “buy a blue Stratocaster or would she have a son.” The songs also are full of historical, literary, geographical or off-the-wall references to anyone from Faulkner to Dickinson to botanist William Bartram.
The term “Southern Gothic” comes up again in Martin’s indirect descriptions of life (or the lack thereof) and people in small Southern towns, as well as the feeling of being a “transplant” and trying to find a place to fit. Whether these feelings are purely character viewpoints or personal we may never know, but it keeps the listener on his toes. I’d recommend having Google fired up while listening to One Dark Vine. Really, did you ever think about how creepy the lyrics to the children’s song “Clementine” really are?
Martin has delivered a smart, thoughtful piece of singer/songwriter work in One Dark Vine, one that rides on the strengths of its content and depth, rather than gloss and flash. While it may not fill everyone’s cup of tea, those that enjoy digging in to an album (or EP, in this case) and enjoy lyrical content that never walks a straight line will find quite a bit to like. Seek it out, especially if you “harbor Faulkner’s birthday like it was the 4th of July.” It’s good to think and listen.
— Chris Cooper
Chris Cooper can be reached at thumbpick43@yahoo.com