Todd Martin Preview

Todd Martin
Uncommon Ground, Chicago
Tuesday, March 21, 2006

Drawing obvious influence from this generation’s lite rockers (Howie Day, Dave Matthews, John Mayer, Counting Crows), Todd Martin doesn’t aim to high on Time For Good. But he is most certainly aiming and the genre has shown itself capable of supporting this amiable, if anonymous songwriting.

A former high-school hockey player, Philadelphian Martin serves up meat-and-potatoes singer-songwriterisms with good reason: excessive adornment (strings, etc.) would be a pretty hollow attempt to spruce him up. Like hockey players, he’s well spoken and prone to cliché — when he utters “far behind” on “Save Myself” you’ll double check the spine to make sure it’s not Candlebox frontman Kevin Martin. Subtle additions like slide guitar on “Punchline” add low fat butter to this white bread, never once acting like it knows more than you do.

Meg Allison also plays.

— Kevin Keegan

Category: Stage Buzz, Weekly