What better way could there be to signal and rejoice in the end of a tour from Ontario to B.C. than embark on another, four days later?
That’s the situation Torontonian Samantha Martin finds herself in as she and Mikey McCallum play Canmore’s Good Earth Café, Aug. 22 and Banff’s Elk and Oarsman, Aug. 27.
Martin wrapped up a tour as Samantha Martin and Delta Sugar at the Salmon Arm Roots and Blues Festival, Aug. 17, where she featured in a Women in Blues workshop with Zakiya Hooker (John Lee’s daughter) and Little Miss Higgins. Not one to remain idle, Martin also fronts Samantha Martin and The Haggard and the Root ‘n’ Roll Review. She’s released a solo album and a full-length with The Haggard.
In the valley, Martin and McCallum will offer up a combination of blues, soul, roots and folk.
“Delta Sugar has a Staples Singers sound,” she said from Salmon Arm last week. “Mikey and I perform as a duo with harmonies, guitars and percussion. We’ve (with Delta Sugar) been on tour for more than a month playing places like the Winnipeg Folk Fest, Trout Forest Music Fest and clubs in between.
“And now the two of us are playing a few more gigs in Alberta. I’ve been touring quite a bit this summer, it’s the busiest summer I’ve ever had.”
All that busyness comes on the heels of giving up her regular job as bar manager at Toronto’s famous Dakota Tavern in 2013.
Last summer, she toured for 16 days to places like the Calgary and Dawson City folk festivals, so she’s really ramped up her roadwork this summer.
Each of her projects has a different name, and each offers up somewhat different versions of her sound. “A couple of years ago, we had a gig with no bass or drums and Delta Sugar was born,” she said. “The Haggard is more rock.”
In her promotional material, Martin explains things like this – If Mavis Staples and The Black Keys had a child, and Sharon Jones were the auntie, it would sound like Samantha Martin.
In April, she released the EP Mississippi Sun and is working toward another full-length for 2015.
“I left my job at the Dakota Tavern after five years because I wanted to play more,” she said. “I miss the Dakota and the steady income, but this is what I want to do. I like to play my originals and some select covers. You won’t hear the Tragically Hip, though, because covers are usually traditional gospel or soul; something different, something you maybe haven’t heard before.
“I have yet to find a band in Canada doing what we do.”
When it comes to penning songs, Martin writes from both personal experience and songs that draw on old time gospel and blues.
“I do have a lot of southern influences,” she said. “And people often say, ‘I thought you were from down south.’ My country songs tend to be story songs, while soul songs are about love, loss of love, sin and redemption.
“I try really, really hard not to be pinned down by genre.”
As a child, Martin was influenced by hearing her father’s country music (Hank Williams, Merle Haggard, etc.) and her mother’s (Janis Joplin, Led Zeppelin, etc.). “And in between all that, I found music that spoke to me,” she said. “The deeper you dig, the more you find what you like.”
With McCallum, the sound is stripped down to “two people, three guitars, two suitcases, a bag full of percussion, a couple of amps and CDs;” all of which can be transported in an economical car, rather than the typical band van.
“It’s great. I love the formation because we only have eight things to carry.”
