Acoustic Singer-Songwriter

Details

Martin Gilmore full profile / Solo guitar and vocals / 1 musician

Full program notes

This program features all original music drawn from my work as a songwriter in the American roots tradition. Performed solo on acoustic guitar and voice, these songs explore personal experience, the American West, and the way history continues to echo in modern life.

Several of the songs are narrative in spirit. “Dry & Dusty West”, “Jenny & Jackson” and “The Last Ride of an Old Cowhand” reflect on Western mythology, adventure, consequence, and the complicated romance of wide-open spaces. “Hadji Ali” tells the story of an immigrant camel driver in the 19th-century American West, a figure whose life challenges the simplified version of frontier history many of us inherited.

Other songs are more intimate and contemporary. “This is a Light Blue” draws from personal experience and introspection. “Beautiful Blooming Prickly Pear” is a charming love song, while “Cincinnati’s Going Home” and “My Good Loving Gal is Here” lean into the rhythmic drive and melodic directness of bluegrass and early country traditions. "I've Been Riding Fences" tells about love, loss and regret and the loneliness epidemic amongst older folks.

“Martin’s Reels” is a humorous song about modern technology and our current electronic culture. And “Old King John” closes the arc with a reflection on power, legacy, and the repeating patterns of history.

Together, these songs move between past and present, myth and memory, humor and loss. What connects them is a love for the craft of American song, clear melodies, strong narratives, and the shared experience of live performance in a room.

Set List-

Dry & Dusty West
Jenny & Jackson
Thea is a Light Blue
Beautiful Blooming Prickly Pear
The Last Ride of an Old Cowhand
Hadji Ali
Cincinnati's Going Home
I've Been Riding Fences
Martin's Reels
Old King John
My Good Loving Gal is Here

Historical context

The music I write and perform grows out of American roots traditions such as folk, bluegrass, early country, and western swing. Those styles emerged in the late 19th and early 20th centuries from a blend of Anglo-Celtic ballads, African American musical forms, spirituals, work songs, fiddle tunes, and dance music. They were community music first with songs passed by ear, shaped by migration, labor, & hardship.

Bluegrass, which developed in the 1940s, formalized some of those earlier string band traditions into a virtuosic, ensemble-driven style. Country music evolved alongside it, moving between rural and urban settings while keeping storytelling at its center. Western swing brought in jazz harmonies and dance rhythms, showing how fluid these traditions have always been.

When I write songs today, I’m working inside that lineage rather than recreating it. I’m drawn to the clarity of those older forms such as strong melody, direct language, and narrative structure. But often I’m writing about modern lives and contemporary questions. Even when the songs reflect on historical figures or Western themes, they’re shaped by the present moment with a mission to help people find context.

For me, musical lineage isn’t about preservation alone, it’s about participation. These traditions have always evolved because people kept writing new songs in old forms. Tonight’s music is my small contribution to that ongoing conversation.

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