Music - February 2011
Western
Morning Coffee
Richard Martin
www.cdbaby.com/cd/richardmartin1
Play "Sale Barn Cafe"
from Morning Coffee
Story by Emily Drabanski
Get the old blue-and-white graniteware coffeepot off the stove, pour yourself a brew, play Western singer-guitarist Richard Martin’s Morning Coffee, and prepare to be transported to the range.
Martin, who lives in Embudo, just south of Taos, spent his early and teen years working on ranches near Tucumcari. “Yeah, all the boys [Martin and his brothers, Glenn and Ed], we all rode horses,” he says. “We were living every boy’s dream. It was great. My older brother, Ed, and I were competitive team ropers, too.” Today, Ed has a ranch in Springer. Glenn, who has a ranch in Durango, Colorado, cowrites songs with Richard. “Glenn has always been a poet through the years,” Richard says. “He’s a natural songwriter. We love writing authentic songs about ranch life.”
Richard’s greatest influence is Western singer Ian Tyson, something that’s particularly audible in his vocal quality and phrasing in Morning Coffee’s title track. Martin’s “Sale Barn Cafe” reflects on the days when he did odd jobs at the sale barn to earn enough pocket change to buy a piece of pie. In this song, he imparts an old-timer’s wisdom: “They did not wear spurs in town, took off your hat in the house, / opened doors for the ladies, and around them you’d watch your mouth.”
Martin has always loved Western music, and for years played drums. But he was unable to envision a career in music, and instead became an educator. He’s now retired, “after 25 years of teaching and/or working as a college advisor at TVI” (now Central New Mexico Community College), in Albuquerque. “All those years I also played with Western bands. Now I’ve become more serious about my music, and have been steadily singing, playing guitar, and performing the past six years.”
A dozen musicians add to the rich blend on this excellent disc, yet their contributions never overpower Martin’s songs, which are mostly ballads. His wife, Edna Trujillo Martin, plays strings, accordion, and percussion, and sings harmony. “She’s classically trained and offers good input,” Martin says. In addition to a fabulous fiddler and an outstanding stand-up bassist—Bruce Thompson and Blane Sloan, respectively—two professional classical musicians are featured. Cellist Joan Zucker adds a strain
of deep emotion to “The One,” while Martin McPherson offers the magic of his flute in “Monarch Butterfly.”
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