From Craigslist to Nashville

June 8, 2014

Putting a band together is never easy. But country music artist Jacob Martin took a chance online to find his bandmates, a group that now enjoys radio airplay and has a second album in the works.

Since it formed, Jacob Martin Band has shared the stage with Nashville faves like Justin Moore and Lee Brice. Their next stop? Odawa Casino Resort in Petoskey.

CRAIGSLIST CASTING CALL

In what might be termed a modern casting call, Martin put the word out on online classifieds king, craigslist.com, that he needed bandmates.

"When we put the ad out on Craigslist we had no idea what type of musicians that we would attract," said Martin, who went through a few different players until he found what he was looking for.

Today, the band includes Mike Guy on bass, Jeff Coggins on guitar, and Josh Carlson on drums.

"Josh "¦ has the ability to not only learn the music quickly, but is flawless and makes no mistakes when he plays," Martin said. "With Mike, it was his passion and persistence that attracted us to him. And when Jeff auditioned, we knew by the first song"¦He is by far one of the best guitar players in the Nashville scene."

NASHVILLE TEAMWORK

Martin is the founder and main songwriter of the band. But the group does use some outside material from other writers, and Martin also writes for a Nashville publishing company. So many songs zip back and forth until the band finds the "right" ones.

Guy also writes music for the band on occasion, as does their producer, Jody Stevens. Then, the band works together as a whole, usually from a guitar melody or rough demo, to build the song to fit their overall style. It’s teamwork that benefits the entire outfit, even if Martin is the de facto leader.

"Lots of discussion and ideas go into the process of preparing the song for the studio and live shows," Martin said. "We are a band, and we are all creative in how the songs will sound."

While that sound has its boots solidly in the country genre, there are other components that help Jacob Martin Band stand apart, one of those being the diversity that each bandmate brings to the process.

"We believe that fans will know right away who we are when they hear one of our songs on the radio," Martin said. "We love that our fans have welcomed our style, and we will continue to grow making our sound our own."

PETOSKEY PERFORMANCE

Now working on their second album, Jacob Martin Band is recording in Nashville again with Stevens, and plans to send a new single to radio and other media outlets some time this summer.

In the meantime, the tour is the thing, and these country boys take a personal approach that includes meeting as many of their fans as they can.

"We don’t care if it’s in front of five people or 10,000 people; we love to share our music with everyone," Martin said. "And we have never been to Petoskey before, so we are very excited to play in a new place, in front of new people. We love it all."

Jacob Martin Band will be in concert at Odawa Casino Resort in Petoskey on Thurs., June 12 at 8pm. For more, visit jacobmartinband. com and odawacasino.com.