Musical Influences Part 1: The Roots

No, “The Roots” is not referring to a new age “earth” band. I simply mean where my love for music began. I grew up in a home where Southern Gospel Music was heard almost nightly. My parents sang in a gospel group known as “The Franklins” for about 20 years and then my father went on to sing with a group called “The Noblemen”. He now sings with a group called “The Garry Polston Family”. My home church in those days would have southern gospel concerts every couple of months and I got to meet a lot of up-and-coming singers and musicians. Several of them sing on those Gaither videos now. If I wasn’t hearing it live, I was hearing it on tapes, 8 tracks, or records. That’s right, records! But to be honest with you, I hated it for much of my childhood. That is no surpise to me now. Before I became a Christian, my heart was at odds with the Creator and his Gospel. It would have been strange to like hearing such messages in song. But as the Lord began to convict me of sin and change my heart I learned to love some of the things that I would hear in those songs. I came to love a song called “First Day in Heaven”. Not the fast one, but the slow one. Some of it went like this: “And God’s own hand shall wipe Away the tears from every eye And death itself shall lay down and die” I went through a spell where I thought that Southern Gospel music only sang about heaven and it bothered me that the songs were so consumed with it. I thought that they should be about more than that. There are a lot of SG songs about heaven. But when I compare them to what I hear on contemporary christian radio these days, I think that theologically, SG has the edge. I never thought I would say that but it’s true. Specifically talking about the radio and specifically in the last 4 or 5 years. The good, the bad, and the ugly exist in any genre of music. But while thinking about my muscial influences, I have noticed I like people from a little bit of everywhere. At age 16 I began to play bass guitar with a southern gospel duo (later trio) called “Willing Heart”. I have also sang in a gospel quartet known as “The Captial City Boys”. So my love for those rich harmonies has influenced what I write greatly. Many songs in the Josh Martin Band lend themselves to SG harmony. It makes for a unique sound. Rock guitars and SG harmony–can they work together? I think so. We’re doing it either way! One group in particular that I have grown to love and have influenced my music is the SG group “Gold City”. You need to go hear "It's Still the Cross". Best SG song in 10 years!