Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Paul Martin. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Paul, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. We’d love to hear about when you first realized that you wanted to pursue a creative path professionally.

My parents had a band when I was growing up. I made my stage debut with them at age 5 playing tambourine that evening. I believe that was the point where I knew I had to make this my goal to do what I love and try to make a living doing it.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

My father opened a recording studio in our home when I was 2 years old. By the time I was 9 years old, I was playing drums on the projects being recorded there. I soon discovered I had an ability to play several other instruments, so by age 12 I was playing all of the instruments on the recording projects for my dad. I joined my first rock band at age 15, but continued recording with lots of other artists at my dad’s studio. I continued this all the way thru my college years. Once I was out of college, I soon got my first job touring with a national artist. His name was Billy Joe Royal, and he had been a rock artist in the 60’s and early 70’s (do you remember “Down In The Boondocks,” “I Knew You When,” or “Hush?”), but had become a successful country artist having hit singles on country radio. After a year with him, I became the lead vocalist/lead guitarist for country/pop group Exile. They had a worldwide smash hit called “I Want To Kiss You All Over” in the late 70’s, but had changed over top the country market and had several hit singles by the time I had joined them. We went on to having a few more hit singles before disbanding in 1994. It was during this time when I met my wife. I had actually met her parents before I met her. Her father, Duane Allen is the lead vocalist for the legendary “Oak Ridge Boys” (Remember “Elvira?”), and her mother Norah Lee Allen was a staff singer at the Grand ‘Ol Opry for over 40 years. I embarked on a solo career in 1994, and Jamie and I were married in 1995. While I was still pursuing my solo career, I went back out the road with country artist Kathy Mattea for a couple of years. In 1998, Jamie and I had our first child, and named him March Allen Martin. I left Kathy’s band to go out on the road as bassist for the Oak Ridge Boys. We had a second son, Kell Jeffrey Martin in 2001. At this time I realized I needed to be a presence in my boys’ lives, so I left the Oaks in summer 2002. Jamie took a corporate job, and I put all of my efforts into using my recording studio I had built in the early 90’s to help pay our bills. During those years I recorded some pieces of music that made it into some major motion pictures, and lots of TV shows. In 2005, we had a 3rd child, daughter Texas LeeAnna Martin, and we had another daughter Tallant Anderson Martin in 2007. During these years I would occasionally go out on the road with a couple of artist friends or play the Grand ‘Ol Opry with them, but Jamie and I had decided that we would make a big effort to make our recording studio a full time operation, so we sat about making that happen. In early 2008, I got a call from country artist Marty Stuart to join his band “The Fabulous Superlatives,” I decided to accept the offer. During my 7 years with Marty, we recorded several album projects, plus did 6 seasons of a TV show that is still airing today. We even won a Grammy for one of the projects we recorded. During these years, my children were gaining major interest in music. They even made several appearances on Marty’s TV show. One week in early 2010 found Jamie and I sitting at home one night just singing songs while I played some guitar. Our oldest son added a harmony part as he passed thru the room, so we got him to sit down with us and sing some more. Our other son Kell came in and sat down with us too. We started messing with some complex harmonies by groups like The Beach Boys and Chicago, and were amazed at how quickly they picked those parts up. We then spent the next 3-4 days working up some more songs with them. On the following Sunday evening, Jamie called her parents and asked if we could come by and show them something. We then went to their house and gave them a private concert in their den. They too were really impressed at how well the boys heard the complex harmonies. We then decided to book a couple of small shows and fairs just to get to go and sing with our boys. Texas had just turned 5, and she also hearing parts, and had an amazing sense of pitch. Tallant was 3, and she also wanted to add into the mix. We did this for fun until 2014, and that is when Jamie and I realized they were all getting to be really proficient as singers and now musicians. We decided to try and take this to another level, so I left Marty’s band in early 2015 to do this with my family full time. We have released a couple of CD’s and several singles. We have performed many shows now from fairs to theaters to The Grand ‘Ol Opry, The Library Of Congress, and even at the White House. As of this writing, we are recording new songs that are written within our band and about to release a new single titled “LOA.”

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

I am now able to do the thing I love most with the people I love most.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

Whenever we started traveling as the band Rockland Road back in 2015, I had to realize there were no crew to help setup, no agents to book our shows, no cashflow to help with our traveling costs. It is very similar to a family that farms for their living. It takes all hands on deck to pull of the performance. Late nights and early mornings, with very little sleep, and you very seldom can afford to take a day off. The best part is we are spending 24/7 together as a family, and the kids are observing how we handle these daily pressures. It takes real talent to be able to do what we do, but I believe it takes more work ethic to truly be successful at whatever you set out to do in life.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.rocklandroad.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rocklandroad/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/rocklandroad/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/rocklandroad_
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/RocklandRoad
• Other: https://www.tiktok.com/tag/rocklandroad

Image Credits
Cody Peavy