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| Jodi Martin: from Australia to Canada Jodi Martin plays the Bluesfest in Byron Bay this weekend, kicking off a run of farewell shows down Australia's East Coast ahead of a temporary relocation to Canada. The Ceduna, SA native, who's toured with such folk legends such as Arlo Guthrie, Bruce Cockburn and The Waifs, will make a headquarters in Montreal, Quebec for her 4-month tour of Eastern Canada and Northeastern USA "I feel like I have so much to learn", explains Martin, 29. "Leaving my small town as a teenager to play my music around Australia seemed impossible at the time, but it opened up to me a life which still blows my mind. This is the next step of the journey". Born in 1976 in the South Australian coastal desert, Jodi Martin started writing songs when she was five. Encouraged by her Mum, who loaned Jodi her tape recorder to make her first recordings, she kept writing into her teen years. In 1995, at age 16, Jodi met Kasey Chambers and the Chambers family, the SA foursome that formed the Dead Ringer Band, and started a fruitful creative friendship. Like Jodi, Kasey was shaped by her years in the remote desert region of the Nullarbor Plain. Kasey recorded Jodi's song "Why" for their album "Homefires", which won an ARIA Award the following year for Best Country Album. With the encouragement of the Chambers family, Jodi left her small desert hometown for the more populated East Coast to begin her own career as a singer/songwriter. Four critically-acclaimed albums later, the sparse landscape of her childhood still resonates in Jodi's music, and the legacy of a small town remains in her honest lyrics. Martin is not afraid to tackle controversial issues, like her own childhood spent in an area with a large indigenous population. Her story comes through in songs like "Riddles" (Water and Wood) where racism is witnessed through a child's eyes. She writes frank and incisive lyrics about everything from relationships with lovers, parents, to social justice and personal issues like abuse. Jodi's strong feelings of connection to place mean that Australian imagery weaves itself into her work. Confident in her Australian roots, Jodi looks forward to the challenges of her first major overseas tour. "My mission has been to write one new song a week and get to Canada armed with ten new songs in my suitcase, " says Martin, "But I want to play them here at home before I go." Jodi Martin will be at the Byron Bay Blues Festival on April 17th to kick off what is humorously titled her 'Suitcase Showcase Tour'. write your comments about the article :: © 2006 Jazz News :: home page |