‘I can’t think of anything that has an ounce of meaning or dimension that doesn’t come from failure’, Portland songwriter Jeffrey Martin states on his website. He must have been an inspiring English teacher to take classes from, before becoming a full-time musician. The first night of my visit to Kilkenny Roots in Ireland in May 2024, my friend David and I ventured back into town after a full day of filming to catch Martin’s sold-out set at Billy Byrne’s.

A day later, Martin – who is friends with Mick Flannery – walked into our set upstairs at Bridie’s Bar and General Store and recorded There Is A Treasure from his latest record Thank God We Left The Garden and covers of Bob Dylan’s Buckets Of Rain and Neil Young’s Out On The Weekend.

‘I ain’t no monkey but I know what I like’

A lot of love songs won’t find a spot on Jeffrey Martin’s list of favourites, he says: “Most love songs feel depressingly far from anything that love feels like to me. Sweeping, giant, romantic notions about eternity and weightlessness and sunshine. Give me a break. I think Dylan captured little perfect flashes of deep love in this song – the small wisdoms we find in knowing our hearts a little better in those moments, the melancholy that always accompanies love when we realize how temporary everything is. Scarcity of time, scarcity of easiness and joy.”

“I like the confidence of the writing – we know what we know in love, and that we can’t explain it doesn’t make it any less powerful or crucial or true.  Little red wagon, little red bike, I ain’t no monkey but I know what I like, and I like the way you love me strong and slow. And then the most beautifully simple line, I’m taking you with me honey baby when I go.”

‘Out On The Weekend reminds me of the power of nostalgia.’

The perspective in the chorus of this song has always really struck Jeffrey Martin, he explains: “See the lonely boy, out on the weekend… Can’t relate to joy, he tries to speak and can’t begin to say. It’s removed from Young. It’s Young watching Young. It’s an artist desperate for some form of knowing, or some imagined sense of peace that would come from that. Watching himself flounder as a young man who doesn’t know anything but wishes he did.”

“And I love how he implies that he had to leave a great love. …loved me all up, but I’m so down today.  She’s so fine she’s in my mind, I hear her calling. It reminds me of the power of nostalgia. And how our distorted remembering of a love can be better than the love ever was in actuality.”

You can play this song at my funeral.

Do you ever think about the playlist for your funeral? It doesn’t happen often, and it’s not like I think about this usually, but while filming Jeffrey Martin’s original song There Is A Treasure, I thought: “When I (eventually) die, I would be pretty happy to have this be one of the songs whomever attends will hear that day.” Might as well put it in writing, right here. So, if you’re reading this in about forty-five years from now, go ahead and add this one.

The sun will rise like it always does
On the day that I die
The world will spin, the sun will go on burning
Never even knowing I was alive

There Is A Treasure

Jeffrey Martin: “Sometimes people ask me what the “treasure” is that I sing about in this song. I don’t know. It’s always moving. And can’t ever really be named. But it’s undeniably there. It’s that good ache in the throat when we are overcome both with the feeling of a great love and the knowing that it’ll be gone someday. It’s the absolute peace that sometimes stays around all night and makes us feel at ease with ourselves, and also the knowing that soon enough we’ll be anxious and uneasy and searching again.”

“I was trying to write about the goodness of our being alive, and the unimaginable size and scope of the universe we exist in. For myself, I’ve come to find some deep peace in the fact that the mystery will always far outweigh our understanding. It forces a beautiful sort of surrender.”

Capturing songs in their purest forms.

Jeffrey Martin is heading back out on tour starting in February, both in the USA and in the United Kingdom and Ireland. I highly recommend you go see him play if he’s near you. Let’s close this article with a lovely quote from Martin about his experience recording this session: “These are how videos should be made. Real songs played in real life, straight down the barrel of a camera. I loved working with The Influences and I love Matthijs’ heart to capture songs in their purest forms.” 

Photos

Keep watching

Thank you for watching and enjoying this session. You’ll probably like some other sessions from The Influences’ archive too, like these earlier ones we filmed at Kilkenny Roots festival.