Country-influenced Rock: Todd Martin's Time for Good

He’s got a bit of Peter Mayer’s voice lent to a Country-influenced singer-songwriter rock that pushes along on the opening track “Save Myself” with this great walking-down-the-chords bridge. Todd Martin sounds like a singer-songwriter who comfortably lands in a band sound on Time for Good. Contributions from band members do not sound like add-ons, especially Brian Factor’s drums which shape, punctuate, move, and push the rhythm. Martin has let his songs get fully formed in the hands of his fellow performers.

There’s some John Mayer acoustic guitar elements, rock songs with a jazzy feel, such as on “Out to Sea,” which then also brings in a Country two-step. That two-step comes again for “Punchline,” with some beautiful banjo and slide guitar (Dave Chaffant). With “Paper” and the story of the Fall into sin in the modern world, you’ve got the throwdown rhythm like the Old 97s.

Martin tells the kind of stories you tell each other in college late at night in dorm rooms. The little scenes of life take on huge philosophical, psychological significance. I’d be lying if I said I had outgrown such observations. When Martin sings about a picture of a girl from high school (“Love Scene”) or Ferris wheels and swing sets (“Diamond Friendships”), I still see how I try to hold onto a feeling of the moment, the importance of shared experience, or a connection to the past that was just a fleeting time.

Thank you to the Todd Martin and Divot Records for the review copy.