Barbara Martin
Barbara Martin is the real deal; a true renaissance woman in music genres prone to stereotypes and pigeon-holes. She writes award-winning songs. She plays guitar. She collaborates with other acclaimed artists to produce engaging live shows and music education programs. She’s as comfortable in a New York cabaret show or a major venue like The Kennedy Center as she is in an intimate house concert or a bohemian cafe. Barbara’s expertise and talent place her squarely in the company of the legends, but her ability to transition smoothly from chanteuse to girl-next-door to perceptive poet that makes her delightfully her own woman.
Barbara’s recordings and performances have impressed critics and fans alike. The Washington Post describes her music as “slice of life songs that ring with truth, wit and experience” and her life’s work “... as American in style as it is universal in emotional intelligence.” Geoffrey Himes of the Baltimore Sun touts Martin as “…a songwriter with an unexpected gift for sultry melody.” Her latest of nine releases, Every Little Thing, is a return to her acoustic roots and “…showcases her ability to tell a story through song.” Joe Dobbs, Host of Public Radio’s “Music from the Mountains”
She received two Met Life Meet the Composer Grants in 2011 to compose music for Who Returned the Soul, a play based on survivors of the Holocaust. Barbara garnered a Parent’s Choice Silver Honor Award for her children’s recording From Ragtime to Rock and Roll and has placed songs with other artists and in TV and film.