Using the blues to tell stories of a life shaped by hard and sad times

IF you are a fan of the blues, then there is a young bluesman coming to Plymouth next month that you absolutely have to see.

- CLARE ROBINSON

Dom Martin may not be all that familiar a name as yet, but this Belfast player’s sublime natural artistry on both acoustic and electric guitar is breathtakingly brilliant and has already earned him multiple awards, including UK Blues Awards Best Instrumentalist in 2022 and 2023.

While some blues players work hard for hours to achieve technical brilliance, Dom’s unforced and unschooled skill is fuelled by a need to survive, and he says playing guitar has quite literally kept him alive through his tumultuous existence. After all, expressing pain in song lies at the very heart of the blues.

“Playing guitar has saved my life in more ways than I can possibly say,” reflects Dom. “And I’m aware that I come from a place where lots of other people didn’t have this opportunity to escape – without it I’d be dead, and I welcomed it for a long time.”

Dom says he never had a choice about playing: “My Dad held me over a guitar when I was born, played me the music he loved, especially stuff by Belfast guitar hero Rory Gallagher, and taught me so much. I was lucky, playing guitar meant that I always had a friend and even now I prefer a guitar to people.”