Sandy Martin
A staple on the greater-Boston/New England music scene since the 1980s, bass player Sandy Martin continues to impress audiences with her control of the groove
Discharged from the Navy in 1977, Martin knew she wanted to attend a music college. She chose Berklee College of Music which drew her out to the Boston area. Martin was influenced by new friend Kathy Burkly who told where to find the jams that could lead to her being hired by someone looking for a bass player.
“That’s how I got in,” Martins said. “I started off with some very wild gigs playing country music. I got a call about a month and a half after I’d been here from John Penny’s office. And they said ‘Hurry up. Go down to Johnny D’s in Somerville. They’re having auditions. John Penny’s looking for a bass player’ and I got the gig. That’s really how it started.”
Fortuitously, Martin’s major at Berklee was Bass Performance. She had initially played the trumpet, dreaming of being in the Tonight Show band with Doc Sevrensin. “Through an an accident I ended up playing bass and ended up loving it.” She started a dual major in bass and trumpet then decided that if she wanted to make a living at this, she’d probably be better off sticking to bass.
“A trumpet is basically just another mouth to feed,” Martin said.
Sandy Martin, 1980s
Inspired by artists like Emory Gordy from the Hot Band who worked with Emmylou Harris, Martin loved the idea of making everyone dance, feeling the thump, and digging in with the drummer. Groove is everything.
John Penny Band, Martin said, turned out to be a boon for her own career. John Penny’s band was backing up anybody who was anybody from Nashville. Martin soon found herself playing with Nashville stars at large events like the Portland Civic Center.
“They would come up to New England and need a band and it was John Penny’s band,” she said. “You got a 20 minute rehearsal before you had to go out on stage. You just learned to be on your toes, watch for cues, and listen to the singer.”
Martin went on to join Girl’s Night Out, a band that had started out as a joke but became a regional powerhouse attraction. Martin and her musician friends Burkly and Didi Stewart were having coffee e after a movie and talking about girl bands like The Chiffons, Ronnie Spector, and others from the early 1960s. They decided to present a girls group at the Innsquare Men’s Bar Men’s at Inman’s Square in Cambridge.
“We went out to Goodwill stores and thrift stores and picked up dresses with brocades and fishnet stockings,” Martin said.
Sandy Martin
The three recruited keyboardist Alizon Lissance, guitarist and emerging star Patty Larkin, saxophonist Myanna Pontoppidan, and sax player Cercie Miller. “It was supposed to be one night and it was absolutely crazy,” the bass player said. Martin canceled plans to move back to her native California because it become so big. Girls’ Night Out, soon after replacing Patty Larking with Wendy Sobel, played another big gig at the storied Tam ‘O Shanter music venue in Brookline.
Girls Night Out opened for Ronnie Spector at The Channel as well as playing big shows at the Esplanade and The Lilac Festival in Rochester, New York to open for Peter Noone.
“It was so much fun,” Martin said. “At one point we were one of the highest grossing bands in New England. I think we were only surpassed by The Stompers. We got picked by Musician Magazine that said we were one of the Top Five Unsigned Bands In America.”
Sandy Martin
Martin was enjoying working with Didi Stewart who was a primary songwriter for Girls’ Night Out. “Once we decided to become a serious band, then we started going a lot of original stuff,” the bassist said. “We did record an album. We did have an EP.”
After Girl’s Night Out ran its course, Martin hung out in the music scenes and played lucrative wedding gigs. In 1993, while playing with recognized songwriter Darrell Scott Tuesday nights at The Warren Tavern in Charlestown, a new opportunity arrived and Martin seized the initiative when some theatrical producers came in.
“I ended auditioning for the part of Patsy Cline for a show they were bringing into the United States from Canada,” Martin said. “It was the US. premiere. It was at the Charles Playhouse. That started about ten years of doing Patsy Cline. I didn’t play at all. I was just out in front and had a band behind me, just singing.”
Sandy Martin with Dolly Parton who she opened for in the 1970s.
Written by Dean Regan, A Closer Walk With Patsy Cline was originally intended for a six week run. Turning into a smash hit, the show broke all the attendance records at that point. “When we left, Blue Man Group went in, and they’ve been there ever since.”
Still remembered by local New England audiences, Martin’s Patsy Cline show played huge outdoor festivals in Portsmouth, New Hampshire and Lowell, Massachusetts. For the past few years Martin has been working on music libraries. One of her tunes was placed in Kevin Bacon’s Showtime TV program City On A Hill. While not currently in a band, Martin is a music director for two projects while also playing out in duos or trios.
“I much prefer doing original music and getting more into a funky, acoustic kind of deal,” Martin said.
Sandy Martin
When Martin arrived in Boston in the 1980s, the LBGT community was not even close to being as huge and as strong at it is now. Playing out in the country music scene, the bass player kept her private life to herself in those days.
Journalist Susan Wilson, during an interview, asked Martin if she was gay. Martin, with her eyes gone wide, gave her a firm “No” even though the reporter knew she was being cagey about her sexual preferences.
“At the time it would be not a good thing,” Martin said. “In country music, I’m sure they’re a lot more open about it now. I guess it depends on what state you’re in.” Martin, who served in the Navy years before the Don’t Ask Don’t Tell policy, was familiar with prejudice.
“I think it would have been the kiss of death as far as getting gigs. I was not something you would talk about or discuss.” Today, nobody thinks twice when Martin tells them she is married to her wife, a retired surgeon.
Sandy Martin in Patsy Clines costume
Martin, who then became known for her vocals, got to sing the National Anthem at Fenway Park. A full house was there because it was the opening game facing off with the Yankees. She does not recall if the Red Sox won that game. “Oh, gosh. I can’t remember.”
Martin maintains interests outside of music. A flight instructor, she once was a traffic reporter in Boston, calling in reports of traffic situations she observed from the air, reporting into a news agency. “I loved it,” Martin said. “I almost quit music to become a professional pilot. It was one of those ways in the road.”
Martin, comfortable with computers, once worked as an IT person for her partner’s business. She also speaks Spanish which she mostly learned on her own. “Immersion is the best way. If you really want to learn a foreign language you just have to go there.”
June 29 will find Sandy Martin playing bass with Diane Blue’s band at Payson Park in Belmont, Massachusetts. “I look forward to finally emerging from this great hibernation that we’ve been in,” Martin said.
