Jason Ross Martin

June 24, 2008...........Official announcement that Jason Ross Martin has joined the Asheville based band
oddSTAR
Most Recent Setlists are always posted in my blog......Check it out.
"Martin places his music somewhere between pop and jam, but on first listen it sounds like a singer-songwriter rocking a synthesizer rather than an acoustic guitar." --Steve Shanafelt, Mountain Xpress Arts & Entertainment Editor
"Martin writes original music for the guitar and synthesizer in a combination that creates energetic, erratic pop tech-rock tracks." --Amy Jones, Asheville Citizen-Times Take 5 feature article
"I found [Jason Ross Martin's] music to be very original and refreshingly guile-less." --Mountain Xpress Listening Party reviewer
My name is Jason Ross Martin and I am happy to have a chance to share my art with you. For years, close friends have called me 'Bird' as a nickname, the origin of which I trace back to when I played varsity tennis at Mars Hill College.
It was back there when the English wiseguy and his drunken companion we actually called "Irish" started calling me Jaybird. It was also back then when I had begun to play guitar along with majoring in English. My senior thesis was called 'Art For Competition's Sake: The Poetry Slam,' In which I argued against slam poetry as a classical art form because of the mob mentality I felt it played to, rather than the truer calling of art for aesthetic sake only. And I studied creative writing with Pat Verhulst and Noel Kinnamon, two professors that were very influential on me: one for teaching improvisational freedom and the other for teaching structural discipline.
I helped create a band while in college called The Mystic System. I played acoustic guitar and wrote the songs, and the band featured many amazing talents including George Sweet (bass guitar, now a noteworthy modern classical composer based out of Tampa, Florida), T.J. Tesh (trumpet, now a professional touring/studio trumpeter), and Mark Sheaffer (drums, now of The Hundred Hands and Blues Forgotten). After The Mystic System, I performed solo, and made recordings with Stefan Holmlund (a renowned Swedish jazz guitarist) and Jay Kaiser (of Every Mother's Dream). My last project was a psychedelic rock band called Poisonedarts, which showcased by songwriting, vocals, rhythm and lead guitars.
I have also toured with the New Haven based folk rock act Mighty Purple and interned as college radio promotional director at their own Wonderland Records. Returning to Asheville I began a teaching career to utilize my English degree. I taught for 7 years altogether, and the pinnacle came in 2004 when I was one of 14 national winners of the Kinder Award for Excellence in Teaching as a result of my work teaching Language Arts and Social Studies at the now defunct KIPP: Asheville Youth Academy.
Now, I am concentrating on my artwork, including my solo music act as featured on this page and also my paintings which can be viewed at The Garage at Biltmore, a great music venue here in my hometown of Asheville, NC.
Thank you for listening and I look forward to seeing you at one of my shows someday.
Jason Ross Martin
4/21/08
LOVEDARTS Tracklist
1. Houdini's Ghost
2. Full Moon
3. January Snow
4. Do It Anyway I'm Not Like You
5. If You Had Only Known Me Then
6. Lucky Day
7. Forget
8. Everybody Makes Mistakes
9. Angel
10. Out of This World
11. Hummingbirds Lovedarts Reprise But Yet It Might
Jason Ross Martin Discography
LOVEDARTS (2008 Xoetlebrix Records)
Poisonedarts e.p. (2006 produced by Paul Songy)
Shots at High Noon e.p. (2002 produced by Jay Kaiser of Every Mother's Dream at Bedroom Studios)
Dip It In the Juice, by The Mystic System (2001)
Not an Evil Man (2001 produced by Stefan Holmlund and Fredrick Johnsson, Champagne Studios, Stockholm, Sweden)
The Mystic System e.p. (2000 produced by Royce Guin)
JRM has performed at the following Asheville area venues:
The Boiler Room
Fred's Speakeasy
French Broad River Park for Rockin' Riverfest by 105.9 The Mountain
The Garage at Biltmore
Hannah Flanagan's
The New French Bar
Pack Square stage for the Fourth of July
PICNICS
Root Bar 1
Rosetta's Kitchen
Temptations
The Westville Pub