ANNA TIVEL and JEFFREY MARTIN  – you can’t go wrong with this double hitter

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.

Anna gained a number of fans by playing with PETER MULVEY for 5 nights of last year’s Lamplighter series.  We count ourselves proudly among them.

A nationally touring artist with a deep love of quiet stories, Anna is beginning to carve a place for herself in the songwriting world. She was a winner at this year’s Kerrville Songwriting Contest, and has shared the stage with heroes and friends across the country.

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. Anna’s album, Before Machines, was hailed by No Depression as “raw, yet superbly composed and executed, intelligent, personal and deeply expressive.” Her newest album, Heroes Waking Up, was produced by guitar mastermind Austin Nevins (Josh Ritter, Anais Mitchell, Kris Delmhorst). The album was released by Portland’s well-loved Fluff and Gravy Records and called “vastly expressive in its stark beauty,” by Glide Magazine.

“Portland songwriter Anna Tivel is a favorite over at Hearth. She’s a deft, clever songwriter with a knack for observing the small, subtle beauties of our lives.” – Kithfolk

“Raw yet superbly composed and executed, as well as intelligent and personal and deeply expressive in their experience, observation and storytelling, the fifteen tracks on Before Machines don’t just serve as an absorbing and utterly worthwhile listen but as indisputable evidence that the folk scene is in good hands with both its longtime artists and newcomers alike.” – No Depression

“To be sure, these are organic songs that freely reveal the poetry of the mind, heart and soul, the sharp imagery of the world translated into sound, and both the simple and complex things represented sentimentally and at length.” – Examiner

“Anna Tivel’s voice is haunting, exhibiting the timbre of a precocious child, whispering to a teddy bear underneath the covers.” – The Bluegrass Situation

“Anna Tivel brings a raft of beautiful songs with brine-soaked images of Pacific Northwest tidepools, oceans, and the birds that wheel above them in the gray skies.” – Devon Leger, No Depression

She and JEFFREY MARTIN are touring all over the United States.  Jeffrey quit teaching to go back on the road.

Born in Texas in 1984, Jeffrey Martin 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.

Martin’s music has been likened to the styles of Josh Ritter and Joe Pug, with an attention to storytelling reminiscent of Harry Chapin and John Prine. Since 2011 Jeffrey has released two full length albums (Gold in the Water (2011) and Dogs in the Daylight (2014)), and one EP entitled Build a Home (2012.) Also in 2014, Martin signed to the sensational Portland record label Fluff and Gravy Records, where he still makes a happy musical home, along with fellow artists Mike Coykendall, Nick Jaina, Fernando, Dan Stuart, Richmond Fontaine, Anna Tivel and others.

“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.” –Devon Leger NO DEPRESSION

“Jeffrey Martin can write a heavy-hitter and sing it too. He’s good backstage company, and a solid bet for any club in the country…” –Jeffrey Foucault

PORTLAND MERCURY: “Jeffrey Martin’s music is not widely known, which is a shame, because he might be the best songwriter in Portland. With lyrics that read like Raymond Carver stories and a voice that’s one breath away from breaking completely apart, Martin’s songs are beautiful, sparse, and utterly devastating. . . . If there is any justice in the world, Martin’s music will soon reach a wider audience and inflict devastation on a much larger scale.”

PLEASE CALL TO RESERVE at 920-563-9391.