Live in the Bing: Martin Harley

It has been a while since Jesse and I got to go to a concert in The Bing Lounge but today we had the opportunity to see two groups. Unfortunately work commitments stopped us going to one of them, but we did get to see a fellow Brit this afternoon – Martin Harley.

Now you might expect Martin to be rocker, and that is indeed how he started, but let’s say – he found a different path for his musical career, one which took him back in time to the Blues. He also has an unconventional way of playing. As he tells it, he was in Australia and his guitar got a little hot and the neck warped. At that point he found it easier to put it across his lap and that is indeed how he plays most of his music now, plus that got him into using a lot of slide techniques.

He plays an interesting guitar, a Weissenborn guitar which has a sound box that extends all of the way up the neck of the guitar. You will see that quite clearly in the pictures. He also has done some fairly unconventional things related to his music and touring, such as his 31 day, 1200 mile, 27 venue concert series done by bicycle and the fact that he has the Guinness World record for the “Highest Gig in the World,” playing at 21,000 feet up Kala Patthar in the Himalayas.

This was his first trip to Portland and we hope to see him again tonight when he will be playing a longer set. Also pleased to hear that Kink was the first radio station over here to pick him up and start playing some of his new releases.

Brought to you by Brian and Jesse

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