Album Notes

CRITICS COMMENTS

"Best Singer/songwriter -Weekly Alibi 2009 Reader's Poll"

“Albuquerque's most famed, most loved, most artistically edgy street music phenomenon!" ~Albuquerque Arts Magazine

(Cheap & Sunny in the TOP 10 CDs of 2008) "... is an engrossing listen from start to finish...easily makes the transition from sidewalk rock to everywhere soundtrack."

"A great songwriter with an ear for the unusual lyric and beat.”

"Makes other bands look as if they're standing still."

“Innovation deserves applause.” ~Weekly Alibi

"Streetwise Superhero."

“Emotionally evocative, melancholy and humorous.”

“Sidewalk Arrhythmia Rocks!” ~Flagstaff Live

FAST HEART MART ~BIOGRAPHY

Northern Virginia, 1994:
AFTER REPEATED BLACKOUTS, 17-year-old Martin Stamper is diagnosed with a congenital heart defect, which makes his heart palpitate wildly until he dies! But not to worry, he now has an implanted device to shock his heart back into living! Traumatized by his own mortality, he sought solace backpacking on The Appalachian Trail. Here, he grew into a staunch environmentalist. On these hikes, he discovered the unsettling fact that many of the folks he met were on the lamb. Anyone on the trail without a pseudonym became suspect. The name, "Fast Heart Mart," was born.

SCHOOL SUCKED and Fast Heart Mart just wanted to be a backpacker or a hobo. He was broke and didn't want another crappy job, because, after dying, he knew that life is too short to do things you hate, so he played music on the street for money. He played in the subways in New York City and Boston. In 1997, he relocated to New Mexico where he found the weather to be better for busking and mountain biking.

TAP-DANCING HARMONICA player Martin Stamper was Fast Heart Mart’s grandfather and namesake and a SW Virginia legend. Relative Hiram is featured in Smithsonian Folkways for his definitive Eastern Kentucky fiddle style and Hiram's son, Art Stamper, was inducted into the Bluegrass Hall of Fame.

SLIDING WILDLY on his trademark, alternately tuned, double-necked, acoustic "gitar," Fast Heart Mart churns out memorable harmonica hooks between mountain style vocal outbursts and urban rapping rhymes about quitting your job and why The Apocalypse is gonna be a good time:

“Talkin’ to my boss (Gone!) ‘Bout bein’ on time (Gone, gone!) Things I do wrong
I wanna take a vacation! Workin’ my job will be no more, when we all are livin’ poor.
Civilization shut its door!” (’Mayan Prophecy’ from the CD ‘Cheap And Sunny’ c 2008)

A COMIC APPROACH, combined with the courage to tackle controversial subjects, draws his audiences into the show. Witty stage banter and strong audience connections win him fast and loyal fans.

BUSTLING SIDEWALKS, intimate lounges, house concerts and festivals are Fast Heart Mart’s favorite venues. He drives a VW bus that runs on salvaged vegetable oil.

A POPULAR HEADLINER. Fast Heart Mart has also enjoyed opening for international stars as diverse as BECK, Handsome Family, Calexico, Marshall Crenshaw, The Melvins, award winning San Francisco comedy troupe, Kasper Hauser and even 999 Eyes Authentic Freak Show! Currently, he performs with Roblyn Crawford on snare and acoustic bass. He describes the act as "Intimate, yet dinky. Quiet, yet rockin'!"

CHEAP AND SUNNY was recorded in 2008 at Mutant Mariachi Studios with Roblyn Crawford on snare; Tanya F. Nunez on Upright and bowed bass; Murdock O'Mooney on the drum kit; Michael Whitton on electric bass, and Seth S. Scott on keys.
Roblyn and Tanya sang backing vocals.

(For fans of Violent Femmes, Bob Dylan, Primus and Nirvana
~unplugged.)!