Martin Carpenter

Martin Carpenter has been honing his brutally honest pop-rock voice since he played in his first garage band in the seventh grade. Small-town Northwest Missouri provided most of the life lessons that shape Carpenter?s music today. With an inescapable country past, Carpenter has yet been unable to shake his true love?Pop. As a child, Barry Manilow, Neil Diamond and Barbara Streisand dominated his parents? hi-fi, which Carpenter theorizes may be the root cause of his craving for pop hooks.

Many of Carpenter?s most musically formative years were spent in Columbia, Missouri where memories of Uncle Tupelo and their clones invariably influenced the locals. He discovered artists like Steve Earle and Paul Westerberg and combined their influence with what he had already learned from other favorites like The Pixies, Buffalo Tom and The Lemonheads. After recording two albums in Missouri with his band ?The Little Achievers?, life changes took him to Iowa City. He quickly found like-minded local musicians and completed his third full-length album, Sheepish. What you?ll hear are rhythmic, melodic coils and layers that will instantly coerce you into movement?tapping a foot, drumming the fingers or bobbing the head. At the same time, you are grounded by straight-talking, confessional lyrics. By interweaving a wry and self-conscious playfulness with nostalgia, regret, and hopefulness Martin Carpenter maintains the rare and pleasing union of honest strife and deep joy.