Amy Martin, a folk musician now living in Montana, is returning to her native Iowa to perform in Davenport this Saturday, January 22, at the River City Music Experience. Martin, who grew up on a farm near Preston, headed west from Chicago with guitar in hand in 1999. After a year of exploring, Martin landed in Missoula, Montana. Since then, she has released five albums and tours the country regularly. In 2004 she launched her own record label, Raven's Wing Records.

"I'm just deeply drawn to songs," Martin explained. "I love and fight and come awake through them. They are my way of sewing things together: thoughts and feelings, past and present, self and other."

While Martin has been compared to the likes of Joni Mitchell, Dar Williams, and the Indigo Girls, her style and content are distinctly her own. Martin's soulful and engaging voice communicates lyrics that are sad and joyous, playful and serious, personal and political. In a word, real. Human.

"I'm sick of plastic songs, and I think a lot of other people are, too," Martin said. "We need songs that reflect the depth and complexity of our experiences. We need music that speaks to our roots, not just our surfaces."

Martin's songs do just that. She has a passion for peace, social justice, and environmental protection that is unmistakable in her work. But her repertoire goes deeper than topical political critiques to offer insightful reflections on our relationships with the natural world and each other.

Her most recent recording, Deliverance, speaks to themes of release suggested in the title. But deliverance in Martin's music is not gained on the cheap. What, for example, is the cost of unbridled freedom to communities and satisfying relationships?

In "Away," Martin sings of the desire to flee the constraining gaze of small-town life, only to discover that the town has woven itself into her being: "Walking down the street in Polo, South Dakota. It's like being on TV. Everybody wants to see - 'What's she wearing, where's she going, who does she think she is?' I'm going to get away. ... It don't matter how much I wash them, my fingerprints are full of South Dakota. It don't matter how far I run, it will always be under my skin. I'm gonna get away ... ."

"Born in the Country" could be a companion song, the parent-eye view of the child's departure from her rural community roots: "All God's children, born in the country, moving to the city. They take with them the wealth of our land, quickly squandered on trifles and sin. My own dear child she used to run wild in the pastures. Come home, my child, come home. Leave your city ways, leave your troubles in town, and come home."

"Ravens Wing" brings to mind the Indigo Girls' "Closer to Fine," with its philosophical inquiry into meaning and direction. Except that Martin finds her answers not by turning from the questions, but by close observation of the natural world - the liberation of ravens or the wisdom of the forest: "I've been having conversations about will and desire. Sometimes you've gotta stoke it, sometimes you gotta fight the fire. I've been listening to the forest and I'm trying to learn, 'cause it knows just when to rest and when to let itself burn. I love to watch the ravens making spirals in pairs. It's feathers and faith meeting the grace of the invisible air. They just fling themselves wide open and jump into the sky. It's a radical trust that gives us the freedom to fly."

"Raspberry Vine" is an invitation to experience, perils and all, that which can't be realized by the imagination alone: "God bless a new-found love / As tangled as a raspberry vine / Red ripe fruit, waiting to be plucked / But the little green thorns will take you by surprise / Still, a berry on the tongue beats a bushel in your mind."

Visitors to Martin's Web site (http://www.amymartin.org) can download part or all of Deliverance and her other four recordings. The site also offers an opportunity to engage with Martin and her fans on a variety of topics. In an essay written after viewing the documentary The Fog of War, Martin explores the need to evolve past brutal wars as the means for settling disputes.

Yet Martin acknowledges that conflict is inherent in human nature, and avoidance of it leads to a superficial peace. What is healthy conflict, she asks. Her song "Smooth" states clearly that avoidance is not the answer: "There are thousands of paths you'll never travel. There is a sweetness you'll never touch. There are wide-open spaces and shady dark places. Darling, you're missing so much. because you like it nice and easy. You like it light and breezy. You never fight, so you've got nothing to lose. You say I go looking for trouble, you say I'm too rough and tumble. But baby, you're too damn smooth."

Amy Martin's music and live performances offer singing testimonies to the beauty of what is, and the possibility for evolution if we're willing to do the work. For concert-goers, that means sitting back and enjoying sounds and words that carry you away as if on the wings of a raven, with a return landing that leaves you feeling freer indeed.

Amy Martin performs live in Davenport at 7 p.m. on Saturday, January 22, at the River City Music Experience, 131 West Second Street.

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