Acoustic blues singer Marty Christian played in bands all over the country and as far away as eastern France before he fell in love with Lafayette six years ago.

"I spent time in Austin and after 10 years I started to really miss the French language, the music and the energy, so I started to sneak into Louisiana listening to zydeco music because that's where I would hear it," he said.

For Christian, that style of music helped carve out his sound. "I found in my music something that incorporates the early acoustic blues in the Delta with, I suppose, a more energetic Chicago electric blues and I try to combine that with acoustic sounds," Christian said. "Zydeco gave me the rhythm to bring all of that together as a solo act."

Christian performs throughout the state and Texas as a solo artist, as well as a sideman for blues piano musician Henry Gray and the Cats.

Blues lovers can check out Christian live tonight when he celebrates the release of his second album, "Underground Blues," at Noble Savage Tavern.

The album includes 10 songs featuring Christian's signature acoustic blues sound, along with fellow musician Andy Cornett on several tracks and one Howlin' Wolf classic.

- Donecia Pea, The Shreveport Times 3/13/09

Hey Everybody!!  I'm happy to announce the release of my new CD, Underground Blues!!  I just want to take a moment to explain how this CD came about and to mention those who I was so fortunate to work with on this CD - without whom I could have never done it!

If you just want to jump to the music, you can hear samples from the whole Cd right now at my website:

www.martychristian.com

This CD has been a labor of love over the last year and a half and I am extremely grateful for the way it came out.   The goal was to produce an acoustic Blues CD that captured the feel of my solo live shows yet produced the sound quality of an intimate acoustic listening room with no electronics or microphones between me and the listener.  Turns out that's not an easy task!  Fortunately, I ran into Evan Jones one night during Fred's Fest in Fort Worth, TX and he suggested giving his studio a try.   I think he did an amazing job of capturing my sound and my soul on the 9 songs he recorded there because all of this was accomplished and more!   That's why the Cd will be released first at Fred's and I'll be accompanied by the fantastic Darrin Kobetich as well making this a killer kickoff show!!

Rounding out the CD are two duo cuts that came from an exciting session I recorded in Lafayette with Andy Cornett at Ivan Klisanin's studio producing two huge sounding Blues tunes with emotive harmonica and foot stomps from the depths of the Louisiana swamps that only Ivan could create!  Andy will be appearing with me at a the release party in Shreveport and also at the big bash in Lafayette with Henry Gray and the Cats and Carol Fran!!

For the CD cover,  I was extremely fortunate to get involved with the artwork of the Acadiana area's creative genius, Kelly Guidry.   The artwork that he created expressed the sound of my CD better than I could have ever dreamed possible.  It's a beautiful wood cut (chainsawed!) montage of the sounds of the Blues that inspired so much of the Louisiana music and that drew me here to explore it - all that beautiful Blues that's underground here and everywhere else in American music.  You can actually get a collectors edition archival print of the CD cover artwork from Kelly Guidry at his website: www.kellyguidry.com

All of this is being released once again courtesy of Chad Thibodeaux at Street Man Records!

For the next two weeks, the CD will be available at the CD release parties below.  Then it will be for sale worldwide online from the Louisiana Music Factory.

CD Release party schedule:

Fort Worth, TX - Thursday, March 5th 7pm-10pm at Fred's Texas Cafe - with special guest Darrin Kobetich!
Grapevine, TX - Friday, March 6th 8pm - 11pm at Into the Glass
Shreveport, LA - Friday, March 13th - 9pm - 11pm at Noble Savage Tavern
Lafayette, LA - Saturday, March 14th - 8pm at the Blue Moon Saloon - with special guests: Henry Gray and the Cats!! Andy Cornett!! and Carol Fran!!!
Monroe, LA - Saturday, March 21st - 9pm at Enoch's

Well the trip to North Carolina was fantastic.  We had great weather and I was able to get there ahead of the show and spend time with Mom - what else can you ask for?  How about the country's first African-American president?  OK! 

I flew in there on election day and man what a party they were having down at the Broad Street Cafe in Durham!  We were entertained by the "Poll dancers for Obama" (Mom wished she had joined this group!) and celebrated with crowds wearing other signs like Rednecks 4 Obama  and the like.  With every state total count on the big screen came another roar from the place.  We enjoyed the food, too but there was a lot more goin' on then that - A historical night indeed.
 

The next day it was hard not to feel the change in the air.  Now I know that no one can know what's going to happen next - and politics are funky especially in this country.  But so many people have been given a sense of pride and hope by Obama's landslide election that it was impossible not to feel it everywhere we went this week.  This poster was found on the side of a telephone pole downtown and I think it says it all - "Speaking to U.S."  This isn't about Black and White - it's about everybody and I think we deserve it.

Then the real reason for my trip came blowin' into town.  This was my third show as the guitarist for Henry Gray and The Cats and man what a doozy it was!  This band is unstoppable.  I overheard a guy call someone after soundcheck to tell them simply: "sounded like a freight train".  Andy Cornett, B.B. Bruce and Earl Christopher are just so in touch with Henry Gray's fluid Blues energy.  You can't help but get swept up in it. It was so cool being a part of the show and I think the dancin' and shoutin' all night long made it evident that the crowd thought so too.  Jaws were droppin' when Henry went into renditions of Howlin' Wolf's "Little Red Rooster" - which he played on at Chess Records - as well as his own classics "Mr. Lucky" and "Mojo Boogie".I think I'm going to hang around these cats for a while... Little Ronnie and his band from Richmod, VA opened the show with a killer set, too!

And just to hook back into the change in the weather goin' around the country, I read that Obama has Howlin' Wolf on his Ipod!  Now that's a welcome change!

peace - Marty

All things went great for my first two gigs with Henry Gray and the Cats this month.  We started out in Helena, Montana during a snow storm and ended up in Manchester, New Hampshire watching the fall colors go crazy on the trees.  Both shows got the crowds dancing like crazy and we were told that was a rare event for either city!  Cephas and Wiggins were also on the bill in New Hampshire and they rocked the house with an acoustic duo that brought elements of Piedmont and Delta Blues into play.


Henry Gray is a class act all the way and never tired during either show.  Constantly pounding out the Boogie Woogies and killer Chicago blues tunes, many of which he played the piano for on the originals!  His take of the classic Worried Life Blues by his mentor Big Maceo is mesmerizing and all of the Howlin' Wolf tunes (Henry played with the Wolf for fifteen years) were truly inspiring.  The rest of the Cats (Andy Cornett on bass, B.B. Bruce on Harmonica and Earl "The Bishop" Christopher on drums) have been with him for over thirty years and they kept the backbeat alive and authentic in true Louisiana Blues fashion! Both shows were sponsored by the NEA to feature National Heritage Awards winners Henry Gray and John Cephas.

It was definitely hard to tell if I was having more fun playing guitar or watching the show at times - it was such a rare form of good authentic Blues.  But I did play, and we all seemed to click from the get-go.  It was an honor to share the stage with these guys but it was fun as hell, too!
Our next show will be in Baton Rouge this Saturday at Buddy Stewart's Rocktoberfest at 3:30pm.  Then it's off to  Raleigh, North Carolina to play the Loafer's Beach Club for the shag dancers!  Hopin' to do a lot more shows with Henry Gray and the Cats in the future!  I'll keep you posted fo' sho'...

seeya,
Marty

Hangin' with John Cephas after the show