A monthly look at must-hear artists from all corners of the guitar world, from the roots of their sound to the tracks that matter most
Artist: Christina Martin
Album: Storm (Come Undone Records)
Singer-songwriter Christina Martin was raised on the East Coast of Canada but found her musical feet when she moved to Austin,Texas, in 1999 and picked up a guitar. Her career was confirmed by a 2002 support slot for Wilco and the release of her debut album, Pretty Things.“Austin was where I discovered singer ‐songwriters and wanted to be like them,” she says.“It was also where I discovered my own gift, which needed a lot of work!”
Jet forward to today and Christina has just released Storm, her eighth studio album and one that was many years in the making.“This album wasn’t intentional,” she states.“I didn’t know whether these songs would fit together on an album – I approached it by making each song as good as it could be. But when I looked at it as a body, I organised the songs chronologically as events that affected me in my life. Then it really felt like the story of my life as a creator and how magical that is. But there’s also childhood trauma, awakening to a place like Austin, and the things we go through in life with loss and relationships and figuring out how we heal ourselves.”
To tour the album, Christina is going with a strippeddown setup, playing as a duo with her husband, Dale Murray, playing lead guitar to her rhythm.“I’m mainly the rhythm guitarist and he’s playing melodies,” she explains. “He has a full on setup, with pedals that simulate string sections and stuff. I have, like, two pedals! We don’t bring other instruments as such, but we have different guitars, like a Duesenberg lap steel and a Duesenberg 12-string mandolin, but we don’t bring keyboards and other things. I don’t want to bring other things, it stresses me out! Two pedals and a tuner pedal is enough. I get that other guitar players want all the toys, but that’s just not me.”
Having her husband with her on tour with a more expansive guitar setup is useful when considering Storm, with many of the songs drenched in strings. But Christina is looking to produce the album’s spirit more organically in the future.“Some of those songs, like Stay With Me, are such emotional tunes and I had dreams about the sound and strings were always there,” she tells us.“I have also been striving to do symphony orchestra performances. It made sense to do the album now and then some day I can have s
