After about 50 minutes of a first set, the group broke, and I bought three of the CDs, as I felt a desire to help a fellow artist of quality. After all, as a writer who cannot currently be properly remunerated for his art and its excellence, I felt a duty to help support this singer-songwriter, who I found out was called John Arthur Martinez. Not only was he a good musician, but he was a personable guy, who knew how to engage an audience. I complimented him on his songwriting, and my comments were more specific than merely, ‘I like the songs.’ He clearly appreciated my recognition, as well as my stating that his songs were better than the songs he covered.
The three CDs were two self-produced CDs — Spinning Our Wheels and Rodeo Night — by Martinez’s own label, JAM Records, and the third was Lone Starry Night (all three CDs reference Vincent Van Gogh visually, musically, or in other ways), put out in 2004, by Dualtone Music Group. This CD is put out by a major label, and came about after Martinez finished in second place on the USA Network’s Nashville Star country music competition. Martinez (who professionally goes by john Arthur martinez, with the j and m in his first and last names deliberately lower case) spoke of his first time playing at the Grand Ole Opry, the same night Carrie Underwood, winner of Season 4 of American Idol, debuted.
Now, having watched American Idol for years, I was familiar with Underwood, and while a very nice and attractive young woman, with a good, solid singing voice; the truth be told, she is a wholly manufactured product, not a real artist. She does not write her songs, she does not know how to emote lyrics, and she would not have won her season were she not a beautiful blond who was easily marketable. I commented to my wife that it is unfair that Martinez, in his mid-40s, has to play such small venues (the second set dwindled to a dozen listeners (including us) before it swelled back up to 25-30 by show’s end), while an Underwood never did.
Of course, at least Martinez can release his own work on small CD labels, and not be ghettoized as a ‘vanity’ musician, the way writers who self-publish are. Granted, in the Twentieth Century, there were good reasons why vanity press writers were ghettoized, for there was a clear qualitative difference between the bulk of material published by for profit publishers and vanity presses. In recent decades - especially since the advent of the internet, the big publishers have generally lowered their standards to a level of deliteracy that shows absolutely no qualitative difference, for editing and talent have no place in modern literature. The same is not true for music, for, while there are many wannabe musical artists awaiting their break, the number of wannabe writers dwarfs them, for paper and pen are still cheaper to procure than a musical instrument. Also, an indy musical artist can hawk a tune of his to local radio and sometimes catch a break. One single tune that does well can set up a musician for life, in ways that even a single best selling book cannot.
Article comments
1 - Mary Fran
As someone who has been a fan of john Arthur martinez since I first heard him on Nashville Star, I was delighted to read Dan Schneider's comments. John Arthur is so under appreciated by the mainstream music industry. I hope this column will prompt more people to listen to, appreciate and support him.
2 - Josh
As a long time reader of Cosmoetica, all I can say is - this article had better be an April Fools' Day joke, five months and several days early.