Dom Martin enthrals South Wales audience

First up was support Demi Marriner with her blend of Americana and personal songs with her wonderful voice and guitar playing. She is a backing singer in Elles Bailey’s band.

Then after a break Dom came up onto the stage with his stripped-down acoustic set which worked wonderfully well with the great acoustics in the church with its vaulted ceiling. It took him back to the start of his musical career where he played solo in venues around his Belfast, Northern Ireland home.

He started with what he explained was the hardest song to play on the set ‘The Fall’ with its great guitar picking along with his passionate singing.

Dom had always been inspired by other Irish musicians, in particular John Martin, who had translated his next song ‘Jelly Roll Baker’, a 1940s blues classic, from piano to guitar.

He performed some new songs on his setlist that will appear on his new album including ‘Played into Haunted’ with its unusual guitar tuning, gruff vocals with Irish inflections in his personal story.

Music and guitars (and more guitars) in particular were how he managed to change his life style, as he stated ‘I am happy to be 10 years clean and 5 years sober’ with the song ‘Easy Way Out’. This led into a more stripped-down version of his song ‘Belfast Blues’ with more time to show off his amazing guitar playing.

Then Dom invited his close friend Ben Graham to join him on bass on ‘Hell for You’ which Dom wrote for psychopaths and an amusing story about re-arranged furniture!, this led into ‘Mercy’ with its great guitar work. The song ‘Dog Eat Dog’ allowed Dom to switch to his metal resonating guitar and some impressive slide guitar work.

Then to finish Dom invited Demi to join them for triple harmonies on ‘Daylight I will Find’ with its great guitar playing from all three. After great applause Dom and Ben came back for an encore with ‘Dealer’ with Dom’s deep and powerful vocals.