Philip Martin is an Australian singer/songwriter who traveled to Nashville, Atlanta and Lafayette in July 2009 to record twelve sturdy originals with a cast of consummate musicians who know how to pick, sing, and bring his songs to life. Martin also plays acoustic guitar and harmonica. His wife Amber sings backup vocals. Whether you like Cajun, blues or country flavorings, there’s plenty of contagious music on “Greetings From Nashlantafayette.”  Martin’s biggest challenge is to write material that is fresh, with new perspectives or messages that we haven’t heard a thousand times before. Depending on your own experience and background, I’ll let you be the judge of that. There’s no question, however, that Martin is dedicated to his craft, can write pleasing songs, and can sing them in a relaxed, friendly, easygoing manner.

Martin opens with his brand of swamp rock on “Every Time We Kiss,” and it’s not long before Martin is singing a plaintive folk ballad, “Daddy’s Little Girl.” Perhaps because of time or budget constraints, a few numbers from the Atlanta session sound like they’re not quite totally finished. For example, “My Heart’s Big Enough for Two” is sung solo over a spare setting of only acoustic guitar and Danny McAdams’ Dobro. A bonus track and reprisal of “Every Time We Kiss,” a duet recorded in Atlanta with Sonia Leigh, also sounds like it would benefit from some more charged-up instrumental support similar to the album’s opening cut version. Sonia is a soulful singer whose gritty vocals just don’t seem to quite mesh with Philip’s. Another bonus track is the Atlanta version of “Shades of Blue” which closes the project….albeit not a whole lot different than the Nashville mix found at track seven.    

Phillip Martin’s strength with his body of material rests clearly with the variety of eclectic artists he lined up for accompaniment. Three cuts were engineered in east Nashville by Joe McMahan, whose guitars also demonstrate his familiarity with both traditional and contemporary stylings perfect for Martin’s Americana music. Moving on to Lafayette, Martin worked with engineer David Rachou and enlisted the help of Roddie Romero & the Hub City All Stars, a soulful Grammy-nominated band with over 20 years of performing experience. These energetic and notorious “Louisiana Roots Rockers” take a song like “Every Time We Kiss” and infuse it with Roddie Romero’s Cajun accordion and Eric Adcock’s boogie-woogie piano. The same band also displays considerable bayou blues leanings with a number like “She Know,” a song that allows Martin to strut his hot harmonica riffs, while Eric Adcock’s piano also puts on a great show. We quickly realize how Philip won the “Hohner National Harmonica Championship” in 1998. Chad Viator’s tasteful guitar is also noteworthy. The strongest cut from the Atlanta session, engineered by Levi Lowrey, is “Baby Why,” in which Martin exclaims that “I’d be better off if I was six feet in the ground.” With the release of this album, I actually expect him to soar to new heights as more and more people gain familiarity and connect with his music.     (Joe Ross, Roots Music Review)
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