Anna Tivel, Jeffrey Martin

press release: $7

Anna Tivel has spent some quality hours in a dodge caravan repeating lyrical lines over and over until the words fall in time with the windshield wipers, or until the gas light comes on.

An internationally touring artist with a deep love of quiet stories, Anna is beginning to carve a place for herself in the songwriting world. She was chosen a winner of both the Telluride Troubadour Contest and the Kerrville New Folk Contest and has shared the stage with heroes and friends like Gregory Alan Isakov, Blind Pilot, Anais Mitchell, Mason Jennings, Mandolin Orange, Sean Rowe, Darlingside, Peter Mulvey, John Doe, Jeffrey Martin, and lots more.

Anna was raised in the forest and farmland of rural northern Washington and currently calls Portland, OR home. Her songs reflect both the stark colors of small town life, and the hard, sharp lines of the city. Her newest album, Small Believer, came out in September on Portland’s well-loved Fluff & Gravy Records. Produced by guitar mastermind Austin Nevins (Josh Ritter, Anais Mitchell). NPR praised the album, saying it “repeatedly achieves this exquisite balance of the quotidian and the sublime with imagery that's deeply poetic.” Her previous album, Heroes Waking Up was hailed by Folk Radio UK as "a superb and sublime album from a voice that deserves to be shouted from the highest rooftops.”

"Singer-songwriters are often called poets. In truth, only a few deliver the deep insight and sense of the new that breaking through the predictable achieves. Anna Tivel is one.” NPR

"Everything here is testament to her storytelling gifts (she’s been likened to Steinbeck and I suspect she may have a novel or short stories collection in her) with her finely drawn characters and observations of an emotional life that ranges from defiance to regret, joy to sadness." -- Folk Radio UK

Jeffrey Martin, born in Texas in 1984, quickly made his way to the Northwest where he discovered in nature and in people what would be the deep well for much of his songwriting. His father was a lover of stories, especially in music, and Martin was raised with a careful ear cocked and listening to Neil Young, John Prine, Jackson Browne, Bob Dylan, and Harry Chapin. He was fortunate to live in Eugene, OR for much of his adolescence, where in the late 90’s and early 2000’s there was a strong and steady flow of folk songwriters touring through. Leo Kotke, John Gorka, and David Wilcox were huge inspirations.

In 2011 Jeffrey Martin caught a lucky break, a chance encounter with a prominent local promoter at a rowdy dive bar. Through that meeting he was invited to open for Tracy Grammer and then David Wilcox, which then lead to a few small tours, and eventually a finalist slot in a national songwriting competition in New York City and a successful national tour.

In 2014 Martin was invited to perform at Kerrville Folk Festival’s New Folk Contest, and in 2016 he performed in the Rocky Mountain Folks Festival song contest where he placed 3rd. After taking a brief hiatus from touring in order to teach high school English in 2015/16, Jeffrey Martin is back on the road touring full-time nationally and overseas. He has shared shows with the likes of Sean Hayes, Anais Mitchell, Joe Pug, Jefferson Hamer, David Wilcox, Gregory Alan Isakov, Jeffrey Foucault, Frank Fairfield, and others. When asked whether he considers himself a musician or a songwriter first Martin had this to say: “I’m a writer more than I am a musician. If I could play guitar half as well as I can write I’d be wearing nicer pants.”

His songwriting has earned him mentions in American Songwriter Magazine, and some prominent reviews from critics and musicians alike.

“He’s an incredibly rare find among today’s glut of singer-songwriters: a songwriter whose songs are immediately affecting. These are the kind of songs that can change you.” - NO DEPRESSION

http://www.annativel.com

http://www.jeffreymartinmusic.com