Episode 79: Jodi Martin

Our guest today is Jody Martin one of Australia’s most talented singer songwriters.

Jodi Martin began spontaneously composing songs at the age of three and at four, her mum, a schoolteacher, had taken notice of Jodi’s compositions and suggested Jodi record the songs on her cassette machine.

At the age of sixteen Jodi met Kasey and Nash Chambers and the Dead Ringer Band at the Victor Harbour Country Music Festival. Nash asked Jodi to send him a recording of her songs, which culminated in Kasey recording Jodi’s song “Why” for the Dead Ringer Band’s ARIA Award Winning album “Home fires” the following year.

At 19, playing a last-minute set on the stage of the Lismore Festival’s Unplugged, a tour promoter asked Jodi for a recording to send to an international artist that he planned to bring out to Australia the following year. That artist turned out to be Arlo Guthrie, that invited Jodi to be the opening act for his national tour of Australia the following year, and became a significant mentor to Jodi.

Jodi subsequently released the rootsy albums “Water and Wood” in 2001, and “Fifteen Minutes Out to Sea” in 2006, as well as 2011’s “World Turning” EP.

Jodi has had the privilege of touring with international folk rock icons, such as Arlo Guthrie (US), Luka Bloom (IRE), Bruce Cockburn (CAN), The Frames (IRE), The Waifs (Aust) and Richard Thompson (UK).

In 2011, Arlo Guthrie and Jodi embarked on a songwriting road trip from Florida to New Your State, and several songs from this journey appear on Jodi’s album “Saltwater”, released in 2016 that include the lead single, “Saltwater in My Hair”.

Her songs, stories and humour authentically celebrate life in all it’s richness, and draw the listener in to what is an inspiring and uplifting experience.