Belfast’s award-winning blues guitarist thrilled the sold-out audience, with his acoustic set, in the historic Redesdale Hall in the Cotswold town of Moreton-in-Marsh. He was joined on stage by his long-term bass player Ben Graham, who also played keyboards too.The acoustic sets are quite different from his full on electric guitar full band tours.
Another piece of music history was the plaque that celebrated Sir Elton John launching his Rocket Record Company on 26th April 1973, as well as playing a live set with guests whisked from London on a private train.
The very successful UK/Ireland Acoustic tour 2026 has played to packed crowds in Bangor and Belfast (Northern Ireland) as well as venues in Wales & England.
The gig in Moreton-in-Marsh was almost put into question as a power cut in the town at 7pm meant an anxious wait to see if it could go ahead, but gladly the power returned 10 minutes later. So, there was no need of an unamplified performance in candlelight, which had been offered by the performers if power didn’t return!
The support act was the Americana/Roots band Seafoam Green with Dave O’Grady (guitar & vocals) & Muireann McDermott Long (vocals). Originally from Dublin & Wicklow they met in Liverpool and have been playing together 10 years. Their set had blues; gospel & folk influenced songs.
Seafoam Green kicked off with ‘Small Town Love’ with Dave on lead vocals supported by Muireann with great intertwining harmonies which was a feature throughout their set. This was followed by ‘For Something to Say’ and ‘Working Man’ with its eerie harmonies with Celtic inflections.
A more rocky number was ‘Whisky’ with evocative vocals and a foot stomping beat, followed by ‘Heavy in Love’ led by Dave in country blues style with eerie middle before going upbeat with great harmonies. Next up we had Muireann on lead vocals on ‘Better For You’ which is a passionate song. The set was completed with lots of maracas on ‘Hiss’ with its quick beat and lovely upbeat harmonies in an upbeat song.
Then we had Dom Martin on stage on his acoustic guitar who started with ‘The Fall’ with echoey guitar on slow but powerful opening with brilliant guitar picking and then strong evocative Celtic vocals.
This was followed by ‘Belfast Blues in an acoustic version of his classic song about his hometown, with great guitar picking and his gruff powerful bluesy voice.
‘Echoes’ which was a song about his parents with slow melodic opening with great Celtic vocals and supporting lovely guitar work.
‘Easy Way Out’ was an early song written after seven-day meth session, though he has not taken drugs now for over 10 years with eerie feel with echoey guitar picking. After a slow start drops into powerful vocals telling the story about his past life and drugs.
Next, he played an unrecorded song ‘Haunted’ with its different weird tuning with heavy beat with Dom’s trademark gruff and intense dark vocals.
Dom is a big John Martin fan so the next song was one of his with ‘Discover the Lover’ again with unusual tuning with slower breathy vocals with great guitar work.
Next was a song Dom found many years ago but didn’t know who wrote it. This was ‘Alethea’ by Robin Trower (who he toured with recently) played with Cry Baby wahwah pedal on acoustic with slower but powerful guitar breaks and evocative strong vocals.
He was then joined by his long-time band member Ben Graham (from Port Rush) on bass and keyboards.
The duo kicked off with ‘The Train Came’ with Ben on bass on a song Dom wrote when a 17-year-old teenager with its great story telling with powerful and emotional vocals with guitar picking and Ben’s support on bass.
With Ben now on keyboards they played ‘Hell for You’ with its Spanish guitar style start with echoey guitar and quick finger picking with powerful vocals. Followed by the Albert King song ‘Born Under a Bad Sign’ with its bass line start and intwining guitars and gruff echoey vocals.
Next up was a Ralph McTell song ‘Last Train and Ride’ which was videoed by a family member at the Half Moon in Putney and sent to Ralph, who didn’t like the version. So, this was the re-imagined version.
The encore gave us the acoustic version of ‘12 Gauge’ with Ben on bass with quick guitar picking from Dom to start, before pace picks up and you feel Dom’s vocal passion.