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MP3 Stuart Martz - The Hungry Streets Of Home
11 MP3 Songs
FOLK: Power-folk, WORLD: Celtic
Details:
Stuart Martz - The Hungry Streets of Home Release 7/16/06, TW 14346 02663
Stuart Martz’s newest album “The Hungry Streets of Home” slams onto the Celtic Rock scene with no apologies, while consistently embracing his traditional roots. Martz’s electro-celtic power trio is what might have happened had classic power trios like Cream or ZZ Top had roots in west Clare rather than rock ’n roll. His guitar style rolls together the stars he listened to growing up -- Martin Carthy, Dick Gaughan, Richard Thompson, and Paul Brady, even infusing tinges of Mark Knopfler, while his original songs cast him as a leading songwriter in both the traditional folk and rock genres with a literary dexterity not often seen. With the title track “The Hungry Streets of Home”, Martz has pinpointed our deepest fears of unrealized dreams and “rum-rotten” smiles behind a fearful past. The theme of “home” runs throughout this record. By the end of the cautionary tale “Twisted Wind” you’ll already be singing the chorus, but to which home do you return? Or should you return at all?
As a traditional musician, Martz leads off the album playing in an electric Martin Carthy style on “Barrack Street”, a rollicking tale of a sailor just back from three years at sea. In the ballad “Black is the Color”, Martz twangs out a lead on his strat making you wish that you, too, had lived across the street from The Replacements’ original guitar player on Aldrich Avenue. “The Newry Highwayman” explodes off Martz’s fingers and lips with a controlled punch to the gut reminiscent of Thompson. As with his previous album, the internationally acclaimed “Threesome Reel”, Martz weaves traditional melodies and lyrics with unexpected delays, syncopations, and undertones that take you into the murkier side of the Celtic world. He resurrects “The Rolling Hills of the Border” as a song accepting death in order to embrace life, beginning with a plaintive invitation by guest piper, Bohola’s Pat Broaders. Martz’s clear vocals and singular Brady-esque guitar picking create a deep longing for a sense of place.
Lest you get too complacent wallowing in the darker bogs, Martz jolts you back to life with “Four Drunken Maidens” (who refuse to leave home), showcasing his exceptional traditional fiddle as well as his penchant for rocking it up with effects like distortion to surprise and delight. The instrumentals are truly a return to tradition, as Martz’s rhythm section rocks on fiddle tunes “The Yo & Ho Reel”, “Johnny’s Wedding/The Girl That Broke My Heart”, and “Killarney Boys of Pleasure/Collier’s Reel”. There’s just enough fiddle here to make you want more.
As a final breath, Martz’s version of “Danny Boy” adds an emphatic exclamation point to the end of the album. This punked-up, Irish lightening bolt will capture the hearts of generations, young and old, reminding them there will always be a home to go to, albeit one that might have a heavy backbeat.
The true force of Stuart’s work is his storytelling. He uses his voice and instrumental arrangements to plait, within each song and from song to song, an album that leaves you hungry for the next installment.
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