Janis Martin – The Blanco Session
Cow Island Music – CIM020
As Long As I’m Movin – Wham Bam Jam – Long White Cadillac – Wild One – It’ll Be Me – Sweet Dreams – Find Out What’s Happening – I Believe What You Say – Roll Around Rockin’ – Oh Lonesome Me – Walks Softly On This Heart Of Mine
After years of hard labor, Rosie Flores finally managed to take Janis Martin back to a recording studio to cut new material. Martin and Flores already recorded together when Flores invited her to sing two songs on her Rockabilly Filly album. Thus, in just two days in April 2007, she found herself at Dennis Challman’s Rancho Relaxo studio in Blanco, Texas, with a cast of stellar musicians from Austin. These included Dave Biller (Biller & Wakefield, Wayne Hancock, Dale Watson), Sarah Brown (The Memphis Rockabilly Band), T Bonta (Horton Brothers, Cornel Hurd Band, and many more), Beau Sample (Cave Catt Sammy), Jonathan Doyle (Four Charms). Together, they recorded eleven tracks co-produced by Bobby Trimble. This album could have been – or should have been – Martin’s comeback album; sadly, the singer succumbed to cancer at age 67 shortly after the sessions.
Anyone lucky enough to see Martin on stage in the years preceding her passing can attest that she had aged wonderfully. Those recent recordings had nothing to envy to her 50s sides. In that she is comparable to Ronnie Dawson. Her voice had gained a deeper tone. The recorded material covered various styles, from blues to country, rhythm’n’blues to rock’n’roll, with plenty of rockabilly in between.The passing of such a great artist was an incomparable loss, but courtesy of the tireless effort of Miss Flores, we have this album, which is the best way to remember her, doing what she did best among musicians who loved her.
Fred “Virgil” Turgis