"If I sing about opioid addiction, there’s not ever going to be a time
where I’m going to tell you it was a good experience, because it never was even when I thought it was. I’ve always been one
of those kind of guys that
tell you about it, but you have to choose your own path. I just hope that it helps one person that is where
I was at."On the radio (Billboard Country Airplay) charts of April 12, 2024 Bryan Martin from the US state of Louisiana has reached number 17 with his first radio single after only 28 weeks. It is titled 'We Ride' and was released on the independent label Average Joes Entertainment already at the end of October 2022. The fact that the song became a top 20 radio hit some one and a half years later came as a surprise to everyone. But more than 163 mio. Spotify streams undeniably speak for themselves. Because that's more streams than most number 1 hits can boast!
With his fiery voice, Bryan Martin sings among others about a 1988 Chevrolet Blazer. It is his first car and has accompanied him through his early life, just like the devil he sings about. However, this is less of a metaphor for evil, but rather a placeholder for all the temptations, challenges and abysses in life that too often cause one to despair.
lovin' and leavin' and gettin' too stoned.
Bottle and a pistol by my side,
the devil's always along for the ride.
At first glance, the themes that Bryan Martin addresses in his music seem as if they were written for a specific target audience that recognizes themselves in the artist. An artist who grew up in humble circumstances in a trailer, learned to hunt and fish as well as write songs in his early youth, and eventually didn't make it further than the working class in the oil fields of Lousiana.
But anyone who listens to Bryan Martin will quickly realize that he is not only authentic, but that the themes of the songs, most of which he writes by himself, are his very own. On his homepage he is quoted as saying: "I just think that if I go hide my scars and I go putting a mask on myself or who I am, I’m doing exactly what I never wanted to do. I wear the scars, and I’m learning to wear it better. The reason why I don’t hide anything is because there’s too many people that need to know that there is no difference between me and them."
The scars he talks about are the consequences of the challenges in life that brought him where he is today. When Sue Bonzell from upncountry.com wanted to portray him in her interview as a role model for many, he replied with an embarrassed smile: "If I'm a role model you know, please don’t don’t follow my footsteps, but rather listen to my songs and stories."
Because his life so far includes not only active rodeo and football sports, but also injuries that ultimately forced him to give up these dreams. And the subsequent escape into painkillers quickly became an addiction, which overall has claimed more than half a million victims in the USA in recent years. When his attempt failed, to get his addiction under control in the US Army, he returned home to Logansport, Louisiana, devastated, wanting to end his life. But luckily the suicide attempt also failed. Still, as if that wasn't enough, a near fatal car accident further resulted in brain injuries.
Anyone who knows this story will also read his song lyrics with different eyes. "I've learned how to take a song and write it down every day as a way of healing," he says in an interview with people.com. "And if that same song can have some healing in somebody else's life, then I've done all I can do."
In 2018 he released his first song. 'Oil Is Thicker Than Blood' tells of the hard work in the oil fields of Louisiana. A theme that he further explores on his first album in 2019 ("If It Was Easy") with the song 'Oilfield Dad':
been on a rig chasin' that black gold.
And the times flew bye,
brings a tear to a roughneck's eye.
I do what I can to make ends meet,
out there on the rig for those two weeks.
But when I get home
I see what I miss when I'm gone.
After entering social media in 2021 (specifically TikTok), the love song 'Beauty in the Struggle' became his first viral hit. Today the track has garnered almost 54 mio. streams on Spotify without ever appearing on the charts.
The song became a central part of his second album, which was released in April of 2022 under the somber title "Self Inflicted Scars". It also contains 'More Than The Shine', which tells of the bitter experiences in rodeo. Namely, that no one ever seems to look deeper than the glowing winner. With more than 45 mio. Spotify streams, the song not only represents Bryan Martin's personal rodeo experience, but also serves as a metaphor for the fact that not everyone can be a winner in life.
or accept defeat.
Pick up yourself,
get back on again.
Most nights you lie awake
as your body aches,
knowing you've lost more than you'll win.
Please God just give me a sign.
This life's been a hard go
out on the road,
chasing this damn rodeo.
With the words: Whiskey and codeine was my poison of choice, he looks back on his addiction in the song 'Lost'. And it is a warning, when he says: we're on the same street as the devil, I've shook his hand.
His third and current album entitled "Poets & Old Souls" was released at the end of March 2023. It contains the menacing, biting 'Wolves Cry', where Bryan Martin describes his humble origins and yet the pride he associates with it:
not far from the Texas line.
I ain't got much but I'm damn proud of this,
double wide up in the pines.
With the not so hopeful 'Never Coming Home' he describes his feelings about the struggles and the torn between life on the road as a musician and a family that he has to leave behind:
about a lonesome road.
You can bet I know
about a heavy load.
They call it playing for a living, but the truth is, it isn't
as easy as a-writin' a song.
Tell my babies I love 'em,
but their daddy ain't never coming home.
(Never Coming Home / Bryan Martin)
The album also includes an acoustic version of the current hit 'We Ride', which encapsulates so many aspects of Bryan Martin. His label Average Joes Entertainment summarizes him with the words: "As a songwriter, his diverse catalog of songs numbers over 3,000 ranging from traditional country and southern rock to outlaw country and country gospel."
So it doesn't come as a surprise that Eddie Montgomery (who is signed to the same label and who was half of legendary duo Montgomery Gentry) invited him to record the song 'Cost of Being Me' with him in November of 2023. "If I had half of what I lost, I'd be just a little bit better off," they sing.
It is a constant struggle, a never-ending search for happiness in life, which in the end is nothing more than just making ends meet. Because there is no certainty or putting all your eggs in one basket, as Bryan Martin sums it up in his latest song 'Goin For Broke':
I've looked the Devil in his eyes,
'cause when you hit rock bottom,
that's when you truly learn how to fly.
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