Ace Album review from Belgium/Holland “Rootstime”

www.rootstime.be

THIRST by Eddie Martin, on Blueblood Records, Dec 6 2019

“Eddie Martin's discography already runs to twelve studio albums. He debuted in 1995 with "Solo in Soho" and recently released 
(as successor to "Black White and Blue" [2016]) "Thirst". 
He chose the title (THIRST: an elementary fearless appetite) 
to express his urge to keep writing songs (and to strive each time for the best). 

The result was that Martin wrote eleven strong, sometimes stunning songs, 
produced with sublime technical prowess.

Martin opens with a ZZ Top-like riff "One Man Band" and, 
with "Everybody loves the one man band" declaring his love, 
the album impressively. 
Lyrically he is then in top -gear comically in "Sewn Up" ("If nip and tuck 
doesn't change our luck, we get some more if we've got the bucks ...") 
and "Silver Spoon" ("where were you, at the start and my whole life through? ... ”), 
but also hard and sharp in“ Free Man Blues ”:
“ you know that freedom's deep, it's not a simple treat, 
it talks of others that you may not, 
who had theirs stolen in their sleep or had no choice but to sell it cheap, 
that's why the sour goes with the sweet Mr. Free man? ... ”. 
After this with many wah-wahs, is introduced the funky "Searching for 
(a place to call) Home", in which Martin calls on us to give the refugees a hand, 
then follows "Like Water", the longest song of the album. 
This is an emotional "love ballad", 
which he opens acoustically on 12-string guitar. 
It is his homage to Keith Richards "" Wild Horses "and" Sticky Fingers "[1971], which is his all-time favorite album 
of the Stones. 
It is "coincidence" that in 2018, in the same year, during the presentation of the 
European Blues Awards, Richards won the "European Blues Award for 
Lifetime Achievement", Martin the award as "Best Solo Artist" and that 
Martin signed with Bucks Music, where the Stones debuted. 
Just as emotional is "Imagine Us from the Sky" later. 
Martin is rocking in full on "Run River Run" and brings a 
tribute to Mahalia Jackson in "Louisiana Woman". The closing piece "Frozen Lake" 
is the "other" Eddie Martin. With a dark rumba - which fits in so well with the Twin Peaks cult series - he takes on the challenge.
With "Thirst", Eddie Martin again releases a varied blues / rock album 
with clearly recognizable Delta blues influences and a harmonica that 
demands attention in the background. The blues riffs and slides in the songs are very contagious and the 
songwriting is more than excellent. 


“ ‘An album that will not only appeal to the blues rockers, but to anyone who loves an artist whose lyrics and soundscapes continually surprise”

Eric Schumaans
www.Rootstime.be