What: Michael Martin Band, Resurrectors, Bloodlines, Traveling Suitcase
When: Sept. 4; 8 p.m.
Where: Be Here Now
There are a few things to latch onto when Mike Martin sings: The gruffness of his voice, the subjects that have inspired him, a down-home feel, something different than most country-influenced music from Central Indiana.
Whatever it is people notice, the Muncie-based Michael Martin Band - made up of Martin and four other local musicians - embraces its diverse appeal. They attract everyone from hippies and freaks to cowboys and "good old boys and girls," according to their Facebook page.
The dynamic of the Michael Martin Band shows from song to song; one tune might be dedicated to historical game changers like Rosa Parks and Jesus, while the next is a bluesy tribute to Sunday morning.
Another theme MMB tends to sing about is family, specifically Martin’s father. In one song he requests, "Bury Me in the Boots (My Daddy Gave to Me)." Later, he reminisces, "Daddy Was a God-Fearing Man."
"It was really just a lot of the idea of the value of our parents and grandparents is very different from the world we live in now," Martin said. "It kind of just honors my grandpa and my dad and my uncle and all of them. I kind of realize now they were trying to teach us, even though they were really old-school."
But family isn't the only thing that influenced Martin's music; he also credited country legends like Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson and Johnny Cash with bringing his music to life.
Even that, however, he picked up from those who raised him.
"It started [with] my parents, my grandparents. [They] were playing a lot of country radio back then, 'cause, you know, back then, country music was a lot different than it is today,” he said. “Then I grew up and got into high school and started getting into hip-hop, hard rock and all that stuff. It wasn't until later when I started playing music that the old-school country love came out."
He even said he likes some of today’s pop music, but his favorites are still Cash and the Grateful Dead.
Though members of the band might change while the band is on the road, the lineup includes instrumentation like drums, banjo and several vocalists.
One vocalist is Caryn Egan, a Ball State graduate. She also plays the viola in the band, or more appropriately the fiddle.
In her senior year at Ball State, Egan began volunteering at a shop that Martin owned called Doc's Music Hall, "passing out fliers, putting up posters, whatnot," she said.
"And then slowly I would come up and do a song with him, then I recorded a song on the album they were working on," Egan said. "And then I graduated and started playing in the band."
Egan said playing with MMB has chiefly been a learning experience, both in the new style of music and the business side of being in the band.
"I was a music education major so I did a lot of classes of chamber and ensemble, etc.," she said. "I do a lot of booking, I do a lot of promotion and just learning how to handle that side of it rather than just showing up with my instrument and being prepared to play the music."
Catch the Michael Martin Band brandishing its Americana-Folk style at 11:15 p.m. on Sept. 4 at Be Here Now.
Also appearing will be Bloodlines, Traveling Suitcase, the Resurrectors and Katie Garringer.
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