Leaving a musical legacy Perry County singer/songwriter releases first CD
By KIESHA JENKINS Staff Writer; kkjenkin@nncogannett.com
Where to buy
Tom Martindale's CD "State of Mind" can be purchased at the following locations in New Lexington:
Antonio's Bar & Grill, 116 Imperial St.
Heavener's True Value, 606 Mill St.
Whitlatch Bait & Carryout, 415 E. Brown St.
The CD can also be purchased at Ed's Carryout on West Main Street in New Straitsville.
Tom Martindale has been playing music for 25 years. For the most part, writing and performing has just been a hobby for the New Lexington resident. Between marriage and raising five children, he just didn't have the time to dedicate to music.
But as Martindale neared his 50th birthday, he began to wonder if he should do something more lasting with his talent.
"I thought, 'I'm not getting any younger,'" Martindale said. "'I better get a CD done to have something to leave behind for the kids.'"
So in April 2001 Martindale embarked on a musical journey that would take him from New Lexington to Jasper, Ind., reunite him with an old friend, and produce a record, "State of Mind," that will be his legacy.
The beginning
Martindale was born in Perry County in 1954. He graduated from high school and went straight into the service for four years. Once his military service was complete, he decided he to return in Southeastern Ohio.
"I always did say Perry County was a great place to live if you've got a job," Martindale said. "The people here are just small-town people, and it's sort of like everybody knows everybody else."
Along the way, Martindale met and married his wife Lynn and together the couple had five children.
Martindale's love for music started in his mid-20s, when he began playing the guitar. His early influences included the Beatles and the Bee Gees, as well as Jerry Jeff Walker and Doc Watson.
Soon after learning to play other's music, Martindale began writing his own.
"I've always leaned toward playing my own music," he said. "You kind of have to play covers when you go out in bars, but in the last couple of years, I've pretty much been playing all my own music."
He calls his style Americana.
"It's a little country," he said of his music. "But it's not a commercialized kind of country. I've always been into that kind of music, and man, there are a lot of good folks out there."
Today, Martindale said his favorite performers include Gillian Welch and Shawn Colvin.
"I like the acoustic type of music," he said. "I'm not into the dynamic effects. And I definitely love live music."
Martindale and his band have played in various bars in the Perry County area over the years, and have developed a small but devoted following.
"There are folks up here who definitely come out and see us play," Martindale said. "Half of them sing the words along with us."
Recording the record
In April 2001, Martindale began to seriously consider recording an album. Locked away inside his head was 25 years worth of material. He remembered his friend, Tim Harman, a former Lancaster resident who had moved to Jasper, Ind. in 1989 to pursue a career in the computer industry.
While living in Lancaster, Harman ran a small recording studio where he was involved with five or six album-length projects and about a dozen singles. He also recorded a few small projects with Martindale. After moving to Jasper, Harman once again set up a basement studio which he used for just himself.
"We kind of fell out of touch for 10 years," Martindale said. "But when he left, he told me that if I ever wanted to record, to just come out there. I never thought it would happen. But then out of the blue one day, I called him and he said, 'Sure, come on out!'"
"It was just kind of a snap decision," Harman said. "Out of all the people I recorded when I had the studio in Ohio, Tom was the one I thought had the most genuine talent."
Martindale made between 15 and 20 660-mile round trips to Jasper between April 2001 and November 2003.
"John (Kokensparger, the drummer) and Tom came out here with nothing but the songs," Harman said. "Tom played the songs for me and I played bass, and we spent some time arranging the songs."
Harman proved to be an instrumental part of the recording process. Not only did he engineer and record the initial record, he also played bass, and overdubbed electric guitar, piano, organ, banjo and dobro parts.
Martindale also enlisted the help of people close to him, including Ronnie Padgett, Shawn Burgett and his own children, all of whom contributed to the record.
"These people went to a lot of trouble to help with the CD," he said.
When the time came to turn the analog tapes into digital files, Martindale and Harman took a trip to Nashville to a studio.
"Tim's very computer-literate," Martindale said. "By the time we left Nashville, Tim figured out he knew more about the program than the guy running it. So we came back and Tim got his own program (and turned the analog tapes into digital files)."
The record was mastered and remastered and finally pressed. Along the way, Martindale christened his first project "State of Mind."
The future
"State of Mind" was officially released on Nov. 29. Inside its liner notes, Harman wrote about working with Martindale.
"'There is a long tradition of the proud but humble loner,'" Harman read from the liner notes. "'Tom is pretty much as close as you can get to the real deal ... he stuck it out as a working man. Music is something he does because he has to -- like breathing.'"
Harman said Martindale's incredible talent and showmanship are worthy of praise.
"There's never a pose, never any pretense," Harman said. "I've always thought he deserves more out of the music business than he's ever got, but that doesn't matter. And it doesn't matter to him either. It's not about where (the music) takes him, because he's already arrived. His intention at this point is just to document his music rather than to really go anywhere with it. He wouldn't mind it, but he's not pursuing that, it doesn't turn his head, and it wouldn't affect him even if something did come of it."
Martindale isn't sure what the future holds for him, but he knows music will be a big part of it. He plans to go back into the studio this year to record an all-acoustic record.
"This CD ranges from songs written 25 years ago up to now," Martindale said. "You go through different periods in your life, you listen to different music and you feel differently about what you want to do. You change daily. I'm in a stage right now, where I'm just ready to quiet down and play a little bit more laid-back stuff."
Perry County also figures heavily into Martindale's future.
"We've had our share of stuff down here in Perry County, but just like everybody else, you find a way to get over it," he said. "It's like my mother used to say, no matter how bad things get, you don't have to look very far to see someone who's worse off."
