Latest / GO TEXAN THE Truly Significant / Truly Significant Texans honors John Arthur Martinez, songwriter and musician extraordinaire

Transcript

Truly Significant Texans honors John Arthur Martinez, songwriter and musician extraordinaire · GO TEXAN THE Truly Significant

0:01
Speaker 1: He HoTT in Texas, found a process. Ride It's how
0:06
Speaker 1: we look kid risk, it is honesty, Goose, it's what
0:11
Speaker 1: we're wear it mosses.
0:13
Speaker 2: Yeah, we may ride farm it is Soulary Wardy France.
0:18
Speaker 1: Should we do with pride?
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Speaker 3: And wea subs.
0:25
Speaker 1: What's left is justin dene. It's done. What you go say,
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Speaker 1: it's no true SIGNI.
0:40
Speaker 2: Hey, welcome back to truly Significant dot com Presents. I'm
0:44
Speaker 2: Rick Tokenny. Our mutual friend Leslie Collier introduced me to
0:51
Speaker 2: the one and only John Arthur Martinez, and I'm gonna
0:55
Speaker 2: read a little bit about him, but I want I
0:58
Speaker 2: want John Arthur to do most of the intro for himself.
1:02
Speaker 2: From the six Street Clubs in his birthplace of Austin, Texas,
1:07
Speaker 2: to Alpine festivals in Switzerland, one of the most beautiful
1:12
Speaker 2: countries in all the world, and from music venues in Paris, Texas,
1:16
Speaker 2: to the Grand Old Opry in Nashville. Our guest today,
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Speaker 2: John Arthur Martinez has proven his music grades on stages
1:26
Speaker 2: all over the world, and he acknowledges that he's among
1:31
Speaker 2: the fortunate few that can make a living doing what
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Speaker 2: he loves. Welcome John Arthur.
1:38
Speaker 1: Thank you, Rick, I do appreciate that introduction.
1:43
Speaker 2: Well, I am so glad to have you on and
1:46
Speaker 2: I want to know, for starters, how in the world
1:49
Speaker 2: do you know Leslie Collier.
1:52
Speaker 1: She's been a big asset to the music community and
1:57
Speaker 1: the Texas Hill Country on many fronts. But she has
2:00
Speaker 1: helped me with my hometown music festival, Fiesta jam on
2:05
Speaker 1: Lake Marble Falls. So that's where we went.
2:12
Speaker 2: Good person to know and so we gave a little
2:16
Speaker 2: bit of a bio on you, but it's just not enough.
2:19
Speaker 2: So take the stage and tell us about your backstory,
2:23
Speaker 2: and I want to know a little bit about what
2:26
Speaker 2: was life like when you were raised here in Austin, Texas.
2:31
Speaker 1: I'm born in Austin, Texas, but I was actually raised
2:33
Speaker 1: in the hill country and the ranching communities that were
2:39
Speaker 1: west of Austin, Texas, north of San Antonio. So I
2:43
Speaker 1: spent a lot of my early years on a ranch
2:46
Speaker 1: in Round Mountain, Texas. And that was before I moved
2:49
Speaker 1: to the big city of Marble Falls, which coming from
2:52
Speaker 1: a ranch where you're nearest neighbors were miles away, Marble
2:59
Speaker 1: Falls did seem like a big city. But at age ten,
3:03
Speaker 1: I moved to Marble Falls, which had a population of
3:06
Speaker 1: about twenty two hundred at that time, and it felt
3:09
Speaker 1: like a big city compared around Mountain with a population
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Speaker 1: of about seventy. So anyway, I grew up loving, loving music,
3:20
Speaker 1: and listening the radio was my friend. Out in around Mountain, Texas.
3:24
Speaker 1: I could get ktsa radio out of San Antonio, and
3:28
Speaker 1: I listened to all the hits there, and then my
3:31
Speaker 1: mom had it tuned to the Austin Country station so
3:33
Speaker 1: I could hear all the old country hits there. And
3:37
Speaker 1: my dad was a drummer for many years, playing with
3:41
Speaker 1: the Austin area bands that were part of what was
3:44
Speaker 1: known as what is now called the Tahano Movement. Back then,
3:48
Speaker 1: they just were making music and they didn't have a
3:51
Speaker 1: name for what they were doing, but they were combining
3:54
Speaker 1: the sounds of Mexico with the big band sounds that
3:58
Speaker 1: they heard in their native state of Texas and the
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Speaker 1: United States. And my dad played with a family called
4:05
Speaker 1: the Ramos Family r A m O. S including a
4:09
Speaker 1: legend and a Grammy winner named Ruben Rames. And so
4:14
Speaker 1: that's how my introduction in the music was really through
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Speaker 1: my dad and the radio and my mom's love of
4:21
Speaker 1: Hank Williams, Oh my goodness.
4:26
Speaker 2: And so with that understanding, when you look back at
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Speaker 2: the first musical sounds and songs that you heard, what
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Speaker 2: are three or four songs that are sort of the
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Speaker 2: cornerstone of John Arthur's life.
4:43
Speaker 1: That one is a heavy question, because every one of
4:47
Speaker 1: the people that were I was surrounded with all brought
4:51
Speaker 1: different influences, and I think I was an equal. I
4:55
Speaker 1: was equally influenced by an uncle married to my mom's
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Speaker 1: youngest sister, who introduced me to Jim Crochey and to
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Speaker 1: Carol King and Kat Stevens and James Taylor. I was
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Speaker 1: equally influenced by him, as I was by another uncle
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Speaker 1: married to another one of my mom's sisters, who loved
5:21
Speaker 1: Creeden's clear Water Revival and the Beatles, who were among
5:27
Speaker 1: some of the greatest songwriters that ever lived. The Beatles, Yes,
5:30
Speaker 1: they were a great band, but they were great songwriters first.
5:33
Speaker 1: That's why they were a great band. And then there's
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Speaker 1: my mother's love of Hank Williams. And so I learned
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Speaker 1: all of those early Hank Williams songs like Jambalayah and
5:45
Speaker 1: I'm So Lonesome I could cry and Cold Cold Heart,
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Speaker 1: which is probably one of the greatest songs ever written,
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Speaker 1: and my favorite one is probably that beautiful waltz I'm
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Speaker 1: So Lonesome I could cry. It's all poetry that was
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Speaker 1: perfectly written, where every line of the song matched the
6:07
Speaker 1: melody perfectly. So that's great practice for an aspiring songwriter.
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Speaker 2: That is extraordinary. Imagine that, folks, if you had those
6:18
Speaker 2: notes running through your head. That's Jim Crochey, Carol King,
6:21
Speaker 2: James Taylor, CCR, the Beatles, Hank Williams and all of
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Speaker 2: those fathers.
6:30
Speaker 1: What my father's Mexican roots as well. Don't forget all
6:33
Speaker 1: of that either.
6:36
Speaker 2: That's right. So talk about a tapestry. That's fabulous. So
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Speaker 2: when you are on stage representing all of that and
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Speaker 2: you now you're producing your music, what do you think
6:48
Speaker 2: the audience walks away with John Arthur Martinez sound was
6:54
Speaker 2: so how would you fill into blank?
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Speaker 1: Felt real? It was a smorgas board of sounds and
7:08
Speaker 1: influences that you can call Texas and you can call
7:14
Speaker 1: loosely Texas country music, but Texas of course encompasses the
7:21
Speaker 1: music of a guy named like Stevie ray Vaughn, or
7:23
Speaker 1: Lyle Lovett or it encompasses the sounds of Buddy Holly,
7:28
Speaker 1: and so it's Texas is just a beautiful Willie Nelson
7:31
Speaker 1: who lives well. He has a home about twenty miles
7:35
Speaker 1: from where I live now and built a recording studio
7:39
Speaker 1: near here. So all of those are are what you
7:42
Speaker 1: would call Texas. And Willy, of course is amazing as
7:47
Speaker 1: a songwriter. But Willy has done the same thing. He
7:50
Speaker 1: has made recordings with all of those influences as well,
7:54
Speaker 1: and I certainly have. I even have done a cover,
7:59
Speaker 1: a Mexican Koon cover of Down on the Corner by
8:02
Speaker 1: Crevio's Clearwater Revival. I don't always put a cover on
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Speaker 1: a record, but when I do, it's usually something very
8:10
Speaker 1: different than the original artist.
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Speaker 2: Oh yes, and you have written recorded fifteen albums to
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Speaker 2: my knowledge, and within the past year. Is this true
8:25
Speaker 2: that it was called Three White Spanish Horses? Is that
8:29
Speaker 2: the most recent album?
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Speaker 1: That's my most recent solo release under John Arthur Martinez.
8:35
Speaker 1: Since that one, I've also done two trio albums with
8:38
Speaker 1: a couple of buddies of mine. Mike Blakely. He's a
8:41
Speaker 1: novelist with twenty books under his belt and fifteen albums
8:45
Speaker 1: of original music under his belt. And John Murray Greenberg,
8:49
Speaker 1: who is a Curville Newfolk finalist twice, two great songwriters.
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Speaker 1: So we are three independent songwriters that have united to
8:57
Speaker 1: do a trio sound kind of like Crosby Steals in
9:01
Speaker 1: ash of Texas music. Perhaps you might call it.
9:05
Speaker 2: Well, that a great description, good grave, congratulations, that is
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Speaker 2: what what a great body of work. And you've you've
9:15
Speaker 2: spent decades writing the songs, write these songs that bear
9:21
Speaker 2: your soul? What what have you learned about yourself from songwriting?
9:27
Speaker 1: Songwriting is absolutely therapy for the person creating the music.
9:34
Speaker 1: I mean, hm, when you grow up in Texas in
9:39
Speaker 1: a rural community where where things aren't always uh yeah,
9:47
Speaker 1: when where when things don't necessarily flow as smoothly as
9:51
Speaker 1: you would like, and you have you're trying to carve
9:54
Speaker 1: uh your your spot in the world. Uh you know.
9:58
Speaker 1: Here's a country boy from Round Mountain to Is that
10:00
Speaker 1: moved into the quote unquote big city of Marble Falls,
10:04
Speaker 1: and I was placed in among the students who were
10:08
Speaker 1: the most advanced, and many of them were country boys
10:13
Speaker 1: with their father's prejudices that were attached to their learning.
10:19
Speaker 1: And my friendships with them and so I had to
10:24
Speaker 1: learn to to stand up for myself whenever I was
10:30
Speaker 1: I moved to Marvel Falls, I remember I had to
10:32
Speaker 1: get into a fight that very almost immediately when one
10:36
Speaker 1: of my neighbors pretended like he wouldn't my friend and
10:39
Speaker 1: I didn't understand it. We were good friends over the summer,
10:42
Speaker 1: and then suddenly in front of his friends, we weren't.
10:45
Speaker 1: And that led to a pretty good little tussle that
10:49
Speaker 1: and but but when you do that, of course you
10:52
Speaker 1: get in trouble. But folks realize, hey, this guy's going
10:56
Speaker 1: to stand up for himself. And I had. It happened
10:58
Speaker 1: again in middle school, and it happened again in high school,
11:01
Speaker 1: just one time each and and folks were, well, this
11:04
Speaker 1: guy's going to stand up from sils. We're you know,
11:07
Speaker 1: we're not going to miss with it. So I'm not
11:10
Speaker 1: saying I won. Those sussles, probably broke even on each
11:14
Speaker 1: of them. You stood up for yourself, Yeah, and so, and.
11:20
Speaker 2: That's so funny, Okay, you and I agreed while we
11:25
Speaker 2: were hooking up here before the show that Cherry's Springs
11:31
Speaker 2: Swing maybe one of the understated songs that you've written.
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Speaker 2: And what's fascinating to me about that song is, and folks,
11:41
Speaker 2: you're going to hear it, by the way, probably for
11:44
Speaker 2: the intro or outro of this show. What's fascinating is
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Speaker 2: that you've you've brought all these names of famous names
11:52
Speaker 2: and songwriters into the song itself. Would you sing part
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Speaker 2: of it for us?
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Speaker 1: Well, I certainly could. I've got guitars on every wall.
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Speaker 1: Well here's actually I have one right beside.
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Speaker 2: How convenient I thought that that might be the case.
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Speaker 1: Let's see if I got much better get to this thing.
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Speaker 1: So Cherry Springs Swing is set in one dance in
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Speaker 1: a dance hall not too far not too far from
12:23
Speaker 1: San Antonio. Just so just to get a picture of this,
12:27
Speaker 1: those of you who are not in the Texas Hill country,
12:30
Speaker 1: you'll get a picture of this, uh San Antonio city
12:35
Speaker 1: to South Texas and in the Mexican border. And so
12:41
Speaker 1: that's where this song is set at a dance hall
12:43
Speaker 1: where these Germans, these Germans in Fredericksburg, Texas, they built
12:48
Speaker 1: this dance hall. And my buddy had a nice fiddle
12:53
Speaker 1: melody part. And I said, Ron, when an't you going
12:57
Speaker 1: to turn that fiddle uh instrumental into a song? And
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Speaker 1: he said, I was waiting for you to do it,
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Speaker 1: and so so I did a little research. Uh. He
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Speaker 1: called the song Cherry Spring Swing, and so I did
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Speaker 1: some research and all of this is true. Everything that
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Speaker 1: I sing about it is true. And I don't have
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Speaker 1: the fiddler with me, so I'll just hum a little
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Speaker 1: bit of the do do do Do Do Do Do
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Speaker 1: Do Do Do Do Do Do Do Do Do Do
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Speaker 1: Do Do Do Do Do Do Do Do Do Do
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Speaker 1: Do do do do do go Aster Cherry Spring Fiddlers
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Speaker 1: Root Swing is King fives playing full of the door
13:50
Speaker 1: like the Texas true door walking for where you t
13:54
Speaker 1: cried night he heard is a child died here a
13:57
Speaker 1: spirit from above? The raptors that go badd love. The
14:01
Speaker 1: op was called the Rise and Stark Salt, Choked Berries,
14:04
Speaker 1: Red Guitar, Hank First and Patsy Crime. Johnny Cash wants
14:08
Speaker 1: walk the line shining boots in Saturday Night. You'll swear
14:12
Speaker 1: Bob Willis is still alive. The German folks still love
14:15
Speaker 1: to sink Harry Spring Swift. Do do dood did de
14:21
Speaker 1: do do do deep deep deep deep Dude dot do
14:28
Speaker 1: But I find you about Juve, I would do I
14:31
Speaker 1: fighting you about jun five mm hmm. It's just outside
14:43
Speaker 1: German town. You don't hear the fiddling man bringing down
14:47
Speaker 1: barr will take you back in time. Young Great Price
14:50
Speaker 1: was in his prime, founded by a native son before
14:53
Speaker 1: the West was truly one water run for the old
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Speaker 1: dance hall. But is it time for one last bulk live?
15:00
Speaker 1: So stage even Willie back in its hey day, the
15:03
Speaker 1: Negro swing band played there too. Body roped sang blues
15:07
Speaker 1: Shine Boots in Saturday Night. You'll swear George Jones is
15:11
Speaker 1: still not drunk. Folks still love sink cherry Spring swing.
15:16
Speaker 3: Jupp jubout, juvet up it up by chu about juvet
15:20
Speaker 3: hoop it up by ju about, Juvet up pop, jube
15:24
Speaker 3: it up by ju about, Juvet it.
15:27
Speaker 1: Up by jubout, jut up by jubat you up.
15:35
Speaker 2: Oh wow, your brain Your brain is on fire. Man,
15:40
Speaker 2: you're on fire.
15:42
Speaker 1: How do you.
15:45
Speaker 2: What are you eating every day? Other than blueberries? To
15:48
Speaker 2: remember all those.
15:49
Speaker 1: Lyris, Well, my my brain, my brain compartmentalizes things like,
15:57
Speaker 1: for instance, sometimes you can't remember where I parked, uh
16:01
Speaker 1: around downtown? Where did I park that car? You know?
16:04
Speaker 1: But he can remember the lyrics to songs.
16:07
Speaker 2: So that was beautiful man. I'm blown away. That is
16:14
Speaker 2: so great. And that's a story, okay, and it is
16:19
Speaker 2: a true story. And the way the way you brought
16:22
Speaker 2: all those names together was so clever and it didn't
16:26
Speaker 2: sound forced.
16:26
Speaker 1: It was.
16:29
Speaker 2: May I compare you to Billy Joe and and when
16:32
Speaker 2: he when he sang about.
16:37
Speaker 1: Well, Billy Joel was definitely an influence. I had three
16:41
Speaker 1: of his albums I think, growing up. So he's definitely
16:44
Speaker 1: an influence as it was Elton John and Bernie Topp
16:47
Speaker 1: and his lyricists. In fact, I got to open for
16:50
Speaker 1: Elton John once. That's kind of crazy, wearing my cowboy
16:53
Speaker 1: hat and boots. Yeah, in Austin, Texas.
16:55
Speaker 2: Tell me about that experience.
16:59
Speaker 1: I don't know if I mentioned that I played tennis,
17:02
Speaker 1: and there's a foundation called Andy Roddick Foundation. It's a
17:07
Speaker 1: tennis foundation. Andy E. Rotick, the last American to win
17:12
Speaker 1: one of the Grand Slam tennis tournaments. And because I
17:16
Speaker 1: played tennis, and I grew up grew up playing tennis,
17:19
Speaker 1: played college tennis, and I was a tennis coach for
17:22
Speaker 1: a while at Marble Falls High School. Because of that,
17:26
Speaker 1: I was part of a group to build courts in
17:29
Speaker 1: our community. Especially for those who typically wouldn't get to
17:33
Speaker 1: play tennis. And we did that through the Andy Rottick Foundation. Well,
17:37
Speaker 1: Andy's mother became a fan, and I had me doing
17:40
Speaker 1: different events for their fundraisers and they had a big
17:43
Speaker 1: one coming up and she said, what do you think
17:45
Speaker 1: about Bernie Toppin? And I said, he's one of my
17:48
Speaker 1: favorite He's one of my favorite lyricists of all time.
17:53
Speaker 1: And she said that's what I wanted to hear. Would
17:55
Speaker 1: you like to open for Elton? And I said, well,
17:58
Speaker 1: of course, yeah.
18:03
Speaker 2: Well and you got to. Did you get to meet him?
18:07
Speaker 1: That's the unfortunate thing. There were so many folks, rich
18:10
Speaker 1: donors that gave good money for our cause that uh uh.
18:17
Speaker 1: I didn't want to force my way into that line
18:20
Speaker 1: uh where all those people were waiting and uh And
18:24
Speaker 1: so I was happy to have that memory, but not
18:28
Speaker 1: the handshake and the and the selfie. You know, I
18:31
Speaker 1: have a lot of those situations where I where I
18:34
Speaker 1: have the memory with without having grabbed the iPhone for
18:39
Speaker 1: a photo op.
18:41
Speaker 2: You know. So, oh, I understand where you come from.
18:46
Speaker 2: Just out of curiosity, what did you open? What song
18:50
Speaker 2: did you open with? And close on that particular gig.
18:55
Speaker 1: You're asking me for a question that I don't think
18:58
Speaker 1: I could answer. I have no idea.
19:00
Speaker 2: Is that one of those I don't know where I
19:01
Speaker 2: partner my car, but I can remember four stanzas to
19:05
Speaker 2: a song.
19:05
Speaker 1: Well, that's just one of those answers where I can
19:10
Speaker 1: tell you. I probably at that time I had released
19:14
Speaker 1: an album called Purgatory Road, So I probably did one
19:19
Speaker 1: of the songs from Purgatory Road. That's just I guess
19:25
Speaker 1: that's probably what I had what I But I don't
19:28
Speaker 1: know for a fact. I mean, I do two hundred
19:30
Speaker 1: and fifty shows a year. It's hard to remember the
19:32
Speaker 1: which songs I played at each show. It's a lot.
19:36
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's a lot of gigging. I want to jump
19:40
Speaker 2: into one of the moments in your life that we
19:45
Speaker 2: had researched, and we understand that you left graduate school
19:50
Speaker 2: to pursue music full time, and I want you to
19:53
Speaker 2: tell to tell people what went into that decision and
19:59
Speaker 2: what it seemed singly a small decision, but it's one
20:02
Speaker 2: that kind of changed the trajectory of your music.
20:04
Speaker 4: Line.
20:05
Speaker 2: Tell us about what happened.
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Speaker 1: I was home for summer vacation from the University of
20:12
Speaker 1: Arizona where I was enrolled, and the master's program for journalism.
20:19
Speaker 1: And I had already gotten my degree in broadcast journalism
20:23
Speaker 1: from what is now called Texas State. It was called
20:26
Speaker 1: Southwest Texas State University in San Marcos. And my heart
20:31
Speaker 1: really wasn't thento getting a master's in journalism. I think
20:36
Speaker 1: I went there intending to enroll into the Master of
20:40
Speaker 1: Fine Arts program in creative writing. But I quickly realized that,
20:47
Speaker 1: as a young college kid who had never seen much
20:50
Speaker 1: of anything outside of the Texas Hill Country, that I
20:53
Speaker 1: needed to live a little bit more before I started
20:55
Speaker 1: writing books or short stories, etc. So I I by
21:01
Speaker 1: default I thought, well, I've already got a degree in
21:04
Speaker 1: in this, I'm going to go ahead and get a
21:05
Speaker 1: master's in But I wound up playing gigs every Thursday,
21:10
Speaker 1: every Friday, on Saturdays, some Tuesdays. And I was doing this.
21:15
Speaker 1: I was gigging all the time, and and my supervisor
21:19
Speaker 1: in the journalism apartment, the guy who advises, you know,
21:24
Speaker 1: everybody has an advisor, and he brought me and he said,
21:28
Speaker 1: you know, I think your heart's somewhere else, isn't it?
21:31
Speaker 1: And I and I said, well, you know, I enjoyed journalism,
21:35
Speaker 1: I enjoy writing, I enjoy words, and but I think
21:42
Speaker 1: music is definitely calling. And I told you I had
21:45
Speaker 1: gone home that summer and there was a gentleman who said,
21:49
Speaker 1: you know, hey, I want to help you record some songs,
21:53
Speaker 1: and and that's all I needed to There's a time
21:57
Speaker 1: that I didn't even need that little catalyst to to
22:00
Speaker 1: make that decision. But that's that was the how how
22:03
Speaker 1: I came about leaving graduates.
22:08
Speaker 2: You were listening to perhaps a higher power, would.
22:13
Speaker 1: You say, most definitely? I mean I have I've had
22:17
Speaker 1: some some moments that I where I've been writing a
22:21
Speaker 1: song and I and I tell some of my buddies,
22:24
Speaker 1: I said, that's that's the time when I'm writing a song.
22:27
Speaker 1: There's there's been certain times in my life where I
22:30
Speaker 1: had felt this epiphany, this oberwhelming joy, and this soberwhelming
22:39
Speaker 1: knowledge and insight into and to my spirituality that that
22:45
Speaker 1: that sometimes maybe just laugh out loud or even weep
22:50
Speaker 1: tears of joy. And so yes, if I listened to
22:54
Speaker 1: that some sometimes it was more overt like those moments, uh,
23:00
Speaker 1: And sometimes that there are subtler times, subtler signs.
23:06
Speaker 2: Of course, I sense from you this deep joy of
23:12
Speaker 2: being alive and being happy and doing what you do
23:16
Speaker 2: and making other people happy. What do you say to
23:20
Speaker 2: young songwriters out there that want to follow that path
23:24
Speaker 2: but are in a hurry to get there?
23:28
Speaker 1: Wow, I would encourage them to find ways to make
23:37
Speaker 1: a living until you can actually make that living from music.
23:43
Speaker 1: And if you're committed to making a living from music,
23:46
Speaker 1: you might have to do. You might have to wash
23:49
Speaker 1: dishes at the local club like I did. Or you
23:53
Speaker 1: might have to help a fellow build a picket fence
23:57
Speaker 1: around his new restaurant. Or you might have to help
24:03
Speaker 1: a hot tar roofer in August when you need a
24:07
Speaker 1: little extra income. Or you might have to go pick
24:10
Speaker 1: cotton with your grandfather at his place for a small
24:14
Speaker 1: for a small amount of money. There might be different
24:17
Speaker 1: ways you have to actually pay the bills in order
24:21
Speaker 1: to make a living in order to get to the
24:22
Speaker 1: point where you can just do it with music. So patience.
24:27
Speaker 1: It's not going to happen immediately. I mean, there are
24:30
Speaker 1: a few examples of where it does, and those are
24:33
Speaker 1: those people are fortunate. But most people it takes a
24:38
Speaker 1: lot of work.
24:42
Speaker 2: It sure does. Don't be discouraged, people, But what John
24:47
Speaker 2: Arthur's talking about is having side quests that can lead
24:50
Speaker 2: to your main quest. And some days you can't see it.
24:54
Speaker 2: You can't see the live at the end of the tunnel, but.
24:57
Speaker 1: Stay after it right you absolutely and down the road.
25:03
Speaker 1: Some of those things like hitt and cotton with your
25:06
Speaker 1: grandfather might wind up in one of your songs. Sometimes
25:11
Speaker 1: that that know that the high school cheerleader gave you
25:16
Speaker 1: whenever you wanted to take her to the homecoming dance.
25:21
Speaker 1: That's that gets written into a song, you know. And
25:25
Speaker 1: then there are times when you wake up in the
25:26
Speaker 1: middle of the night from a dream and what you're
25:29
Speaker 1: dreaming about becomes part of your song. So I mean,
25:33
Speaker 1: it all goes into the to the music. There's everything
25:38
Speaker 1: that you do becomes part of you as a writer,
25:41
Speaker 1: and you can't separate it. I mean, there are those
25:44
Speaker 1: who might take a cute little book that somebody has said,
25:50
Speaker 1: or a twist on words and write a whole song
25:52
Speaker 1: about it, and it has no spiritual connection to the
25:58
Speaker 1: to the person who wrote it, and no autobiographical connection
26:03
Speaker 1: to that person. And it might be a cute song,
26:06
Speaker 1: but that's not what I choose to write. I typically
26:09
Speaker 1: write about things that I that I know and things
26:11
Speaker 1: that I've lived.
26:16
Speaker 2: Well, said sir, I appreciate that I promised that I
26:20
Speaker 2: would tell one thirty second story about the grandell Opry.
26:24
Speaker 2: Daughter Jennifer's a partner, David Freed, had the chance to
26:30
Speaker 2: direct and produce the one hundredth anniversary of the grandele
26:34
Speaker 2: Opry and they Wow, John Arthur. They took they took
26:39
Speaker 2: the circle and they took it to London and they
26:47
Speaker 2: played the biggest arena in London, and they practiced the music.
26:54
Speaker 2: The musicians that went over for that particular concert went
26:57
Speaker 2: over and they practiced. Abbey Road Studios. Wow. And so
27:04
Speaker 2: they've got They've got all that footage. And the reason
27:09
Speaker 2: I'm bringing this up is because in those interviews, most
27:13
Speaker 2: of the people that were there could not really define
27:17
Speaker 2: country music. And I sense that you're closer to that
27:22
Speaker 2: definition because you're so soulful. But some of these young
27:26
Speaker 2: people that they interview kind of went I just know
27:30
Speaker 2: they were almost lost for words.
27:36
Speaker 1: Well, the Grandel Lotpry and the Ryman Auditorium, my experiences
27:41
Speaker 1: with both of those places that the Ryman, of course,
27:45
Speaker 1: was the original place for the Grande Lotpry. When I
27:49
Speaker 1: was on the television show Nashville Star that the USA
27:53
Speaker 1: Network was producing. We had an opportunity to do a
27:58
Speaker 1: couple of segments from this age at the Ryman Auditorium.
28:03
Speaker 1: And on that stage, you don't plug into an amp,
28:07
Speaker 1: you don't plug into a direct box with your guitar.
28:13
Speaker 1: It's it's designed to capture artists and their instruments naturally.
28:19
Speaker 1: So you, yes, there is a vocal mic, and then
28:22
Speaker 1: there's another mic for the instrument, and you walk up
28:25
Speaker 1: to that, to that spot, and that's what gets projected
28:30
Speaker 1: to the audience, the natural sound of your instrument and
28:33
Speaker 1: then the natural sound of your voice. And they call
28:36
Speaker 1: it the church. And and where they have moved it,
28:43
Speaker 1: it's become a little bit more commercialized, but it's still
28:46
Speaker 1: a wonderful experience. It's in opery Land, the theme park
28:51
Speaker 1: that they created in Nashville to capitalize on the Grand
28:55
Speaker 1: Ole Opry's success. I think it was better so to
28:58
Speaker 1: have kept it at the Ryman, but nonetheless, that's that's
29:02
Speaker 1: the reality. They fit more people in there, and they
29:04
Speaker 1: people can go on rides and and the hotel that
29:08
Speaker 1: that that hosts the Grand Old Opry uh opery Land Hotel,
29:12
Speaker 1: they can make a whole lot more money. But that said,
29:16
Speaker 1: there's still something about playing the grand old opery that
29:20
Speaker 1: just feels like you've really reached the pinnacle of country music.
29:27
Speaker 1: And on that stage, you might find somebody who is
29:31
Speaker 1: playing a music that has an Appellachian influence, or you
29:37
Speaker 1: might find somebody who is playing music that's that's also
29:41
Speaker 1: very country, that has Louisiana Cajun sound. Or it may
29:47
Speaker 1: be uh the bluegrass sounds of Kentucky or more of
29:53
Speaker 1: the folk country sounds that that uh that some of
29:57
Speaker 1: the folks in Oklahoma were we're creating uh and, or
30:04
Speaker 1: I'm going to say fifty percent of the time, it
30:06
Speaker 1: might be something that came from Texas, because we you know,
30:10
Speaker 1: our state has such a wide array. And I realized
30:15
Speaker 1: the verse has become an ugly term, so I'll use
30:20
Speaker 1: a vast array of a sound, but the appropriate word
30:23
Speaker 1: is you've got folks like Freddie Fender with a big
30:27
Speaker 1: old South Texas accent that could sing a bilingual country
30:31
Speaker 1: song uh and and it could be a number one hit,
30:34
Speaker 1: or Johnny Rodriguez doing the same thing from near Dell Real, Texas.
30:40
Speaker 1: It could become a number one hit.
30:42
Speaker 2: Or you could have thumb in my way to Mexico, Yes, yes,
30:47
Speaker 2: fumbing my way to Mexico, yes yes, or or or.
30:53
Speaker 1: It might be all those guys that came from the
30:54
Speaker 1: Love area who were such a big such a big
30:58
Speaker 1: time music or I mentioned Buddy Holly earlier, but the
31:03
Speaker 1: Mains Brothers were from the Lubbock area. And the other
31:07
Speaker 1: city of great influence is over in your Beaumont in Orange,
31:13
Speaker 1: and there were so many greats that came from there,
31:15
Speaker 1: like well, George Jones being the most famous of those,
31:18
Speaker 1: I think in janis chaplain, but so many greats. So
31:22
Speaker 1: Texas is just really an amazing state now. And so
31:26
Speaker 1: what is country music, Well, it's all of that, but
31:28
Speaker 1: it's usually songs about real people in real life. That's
31:33
Speaker 1: country music.
31:37
Speaker 2: Beautiful. And see you're able to do it because, in
31:41
Speaker 2: my little opinion, you've experienced more. And so it's if
31:48
Speaker 2: somebody talks about George Jones and he's stopped loving her today,
31:52
Speaker 2: you know that. And and the behind closed doors those
31:57
Speaker 2: are the it's life. It's almost seeping life from the verse. Yes, okay,
32:05
Speaker 2: honoring your time, I've got I want to take you
32:08
Speaker 2: through this fun lightning round we call the truly significant
32:13
Speaker 2: lightning rounds. Go ahead, if you can remember all the
32:22
Speaker 2: names from that other song, this is Bush. So there's
32:25
Speaker 2: about four or five four or five questions, and then
32:28
Speaker 2: I'll close with one final question. So what is the
32:32
Speaker 2: one song that changed your life?
32:43
Speaker 1: That is a difficult question. It is so difficult that
32:47
Speaker 1: I that I can't give you an answer, but I
32:51
Speaker 1: can tell you that. Okay, I'm going to go back
32:56
Speaker 1: to ten years old, listening to the Beatles and listen
33:01
Speaker 1: to the passion of Don't Let Me Down. When I
33:05
Speaker 1: was ten years old almost I was nine years old,
33:08
Speaker 1: about to turn ten, visiting my uncle in California, the
33:12
Speaker 1: Air Force soldier who was about to marry my mom's
33:17
Speaker 1: younger sister, and but listening to the Beatles at that time,
33:21
Speaker 1: and listening following that up with the music of Credence
33:25
Speaker 1: and some of those songs that went on for seven
33:27
Speaker 1: or eight minutes, and like susie Q and Born on
33:33
Speaker 1: the Bayou, that moment in time probably was had the
33:37
Speaker 1: biggest influence on me.
33:41
Speaker 2: Let's sing the first line that don't let me down?
33:44
Speaker 2: Together ready, don't what, don't live?
33:51
Speaker 1: Let me down? Don't you me?
34:00
Speaker 2: Okay, that's good. There's supposed to be a lightning round.
34:02
Speaker 2: So if I make you sing on every line, every
34:04
Speaker 2: question is going to be we'll be here. Who is
34:07
Speaker 2: the most significant person you've ever met?
34:13
Speaker 1: Well, I'm not going very lighting here. Willie Knowlson.
34:22
Speaker 2: Excellent? And what fuels your purpose and passion making you
34:27
Speaker 2: feel the most alive today? Songwriting?
34:33
Speaker 1: Writing a song, that creating something?
34:36
Speaker 2: Okay, that's what I thought. When do you, as a
34:42
Speaker 2: musician songwriter experience the deepest sense of gratitude.
34:48
Speaker 1: When a song of yours has touch somebody so deeply that,
34:54
Speaker 1: even though they may not know you personally, they take
34:57
Speaker 1: the time to share that experience with you. And why?
35:01
Speaker 1: And I'll give you an example. I wrote a song
35:04
Speaker 1: on that Purgatory Rodeo album I was telling you about,
35:07
Speaker 1: and that one came to me from a dream. So
35:11
Speaker 1: that's one of those songs where I told you that
35:13
Speaker 1: that songs either come from something I've experienced or a dream. Well,
35:17
Speaker 1: this one came to me in a dream. So when
35:19
Speaker 1: I finished the song what Good Is I Love You?
35:23
Speaker 1: I thought it was really just a pigment of my
35:25
Speaker 1: imagination that came to me in that dream. Sid sit
35:39
Speaker 1: Bull so fits any solemnly school, never till it again
35:47
Speaker 1: on the Bible. Lady Kim right next to the spithead
35:51
Speaker 1: with her picture in the big said. He sid turning
35:57
Speaker 1: to the gospel called John, and he soon realized what's
36:02
Speaker 1: done is done well. Whisky won't bring back the woman,
36:07
Speaker 1: He thought the bottom, don't is he love?
36:14
Speaker 2: What good is he?
36:15
Speaker 1: A anger?
36:16
Speaker 4: If it ain't worth to fight? What good is the
36:20
Speaker 4: son said? If you can't have see thelive? What good
36:23
Speaker 4: is the Bible? It ain't never been? Redhead?
36:27
Speaker 1: What good is I love if it ain't never be?
36:32
Speaker 3: See?
36:36
Speaker 1: And I shared that song on an album that I recorded,
36:40
Speaker 1: and multiple people told me that that their daughter, their
36:47
Speaker 1: their cousin, their family member, their dear friend had all
36:50
Speaker 1: lived every word of that song. And I thought, because
36:53
Speaker 1: the song ends tragically, this woman is trying to convince
36:57
Speaker 1: this man who's an alcoholic to give her the car,
37:01
Speaker 1: and that's where the final verse goes, and he never does.
37:05
Speaker 1: He he's determined that he can drive, and he winds
37:07
Speaker 1: up she winds up dying in a car wreck, and
37:10
Speaker 1: he winds up living in his sorrow.
37:15
Speaker 2: Yeah.
37:16
Speaker 1: So when I write a song that touches somebody like that,
37:19
Speaker 1: and they come back and they tell me that that
37:21
Speaker 1: song moved him in there and there. I remember one
37:24
Speaker 1: guy came up to me. He said, you don't know me,
37:26
Speaker 1: but my daughter lived every word of that song. He said,
37:30
Speaker 1: did you know my daughter? And I said, no, sir,
37:33
Speaker 1: the song came to me in a dream.
37:38
Speaker 2: See that's where the supernatural comes in. I think you're
37:43
Speaker 2: anointed as a songwriter. I'll end on that and say
37:47
Speaker 2: thank you for being on today, and we want to
37:51
Speaker 2: have you back on again and even to cover you
37:56
Speaker 2: at an upcoming concerts. Tell our listeners where they can
38:00
Speaker 2: go to hear about your music, buy it, and then
38:03
Speaker 2: also follow you and see you in concert.
38:06
Speaker 1: Remember I mentioned earlier I played tennis, and so I
38:10
Speaker 1: have John Arthur Martinez dot net dot net like a
38:14
Speaker 1: tennis player, not dot com. Somebody in the Cayman Islands
38:18
Speaker 1: hijacked that John Arthur Martinez dot com. They try to
38:21
Speaker 1: sell it back to me, so I don't know that one.
38:23
Speaker 1: I do own John Arthur Martinez dot net. And I
38:26
Speaker 1: will tell you about one significant show I'm doing on
38:30
Speaker 1: July thirties part of our community. Of course, there's a
38:34
Speaker 1: big celebration happening on July fourth, and this is part
38:38
Speaker 1: of those festivities. I'm doing a songwriting show with David Lee,
38:43
Speaker 1: who wrote Letters from Home, just a wonderful song. If
38:48
Speaker 1: you don't know it, look it up, John Michael Montgomery,
38:52
Speaker 1: and also with Aaron Barker who wrote Baby Blue Love
38:56
Speaker 1: Without End Amen and I Can Still Make Shyenne and
39:00
Speaker 1: so many others. And my buddy Mike Blake, who I
39:03
Speaker 1: do so much co writing with. Mike did a song
39:05
Speaker 1: that has been recorded by Gary Peno and Cody Johnson
39:09
Speaker 1: and others. It's about to get Western. And so anyway,
39:12
Speaker 1: we're doing a songwriting event on July thirty in my
39:14
Speaker 1: community of Marvel Falls, Texas. If you're in the area,
39:18
Speaker 1: please come see it. It's a free concert in the
39:21
Speaker 1: park in Johnson Park in Marvel Falls.
39:26
Speaker 2: Amen to that. Wow, make sure and do that, folks.
39:30
Speaker 2: Thank you so much, Don Arthur. What an honor to
39:33
Speaker 2: get to honor you today. And we close every show
39:37
Speaker 2: with the usual quote about chasing success but seeking significance.
39:43
Speaker 2: Today I want to close with what good is love?
39:46
Speaker 2: If it's never been said? What a powerful way to
39:50
Speaker 2: carry us through every day. Thank you, sir. We sure
39:52
Speaker 2: appreciate you.
39:54
Speaker 1: Appreciate you thank you what you do.
39:57
Speaker 2: Yes, sir, I hope you enjoyed the show as much
40:01
Speaker 2: as we have and join us again soon on another
40:05
Speaker 2: show of truly significant dot com.
40:07
Speaker 1: Have great weekend, Go Western Cherry Spring, Fiddler's Roof Swing
40:12
Speaker 1: is King finds playing forward the door like the Texas
40:16
Speaker 1: through the door walking for where E t crime night
40:19
Speaker 1: he heard his child died. You're a spirit from above.
40:23
Speaker 1: The Raptors that go faded love, the ops called the
40:26
Speaker 1: Rise and Stark Salt, Choked Berries, red Guitar, Hank First
40:30
Speaker 1: and Patsy Vine. Johnny Cash wants walk the line Shiny
40:34
Speaker 1: Boots It Saturday Night. You'll swear Bob Wills is still alive.
40:38
Speaker 1: The German folks still love to sink cherry Spring swinging.
40:42
Speaker 1: Do Do Do Do.
40:45
Speaker 3: Do Do.
40:49
Speaker 1: Deep deep deep deep Dot dot do. But I find
40:54
Speaker 1: you foutine.
41:00
Speaker 2: This is Carl, the co founder of Gracefully Yours greeting
41:03
Speaker 2: car