Tonight’s support at the East Brunswick Club is Bird To Prey aka Sarah Turk, who gets the room’s attention with her strong singing vocals and acoustic guitar. Sarah has such power in her voice for a small lass! She hails from Fremantle and puts on a fantastic display tonight, her music rich with ooh’s , blended with deep throaty growls. Her music could be described as acoustic roots with blues and a smidge of country rock thrown in. Sarah has a fantastic voice and is a fabulous support for tonight’s main act.

A lengthy wait and finally under the spell of the red lights, Jeff Martin appears and takes the crowd on a solo and acoustic feel , blended with his famous eastern touch and gorgeous vocals. Jeff started playing guitar at age eight so you can defiantly say he is rather apt at playing this lustrous instrument. A Canadian with an Australian wife and a studio in Ireland you could say he was a worldly man, but I think a lot of Australians would call him part Aussie. He has a gorgeous voice that licks the room and takes everyone’s hearts into his soul before dispensing his love for us. Incense and candles are on the table next to him . With his attraction to wearing black and jewellery and his signature long black hair, Jeff starts off by tweaking his semi acoustic guitar then he realises he’s on a stage with a crowd waiting in anticipation to which he says – œI like starting off with everything to be perfect’ and off he launches into Grand Bazaar reaching the high vocal notes of the song to the fans delight. Yes, he still wiggles that finger to the crowd during songs.

He starts talking about the devastating bush fires in Victoria and says the next song, Requiem, is for those affected and Jeff says that this too shall pass the song ends on a long note of bliss and potential. The crowd tonight seems to be mainly punters over 25 years and no doubt many fans of his solo career but more would be fans of that magically band The Tea Party. Jeff then tells us he misses his wife and is pent up, and then he ponders this comment wondering if we now know too much. He describes the longing and needs through the song I Love You and Messenger is included in the middle. No doubt some fans are secretly thinking he’s singing I love you to them.

Armada is the band from the current album entitled The Armada and they are touring here with Jeff in May 2009 and tonight he showcases some music from this album. After seeing the movie An Inconvenient Truth he wrote the song A Line in the Sand which he sings for us tonight. He asks if he talks too much and we respond no way. Victoria makes great guitars for him he tells us, and then continues on telling us he lives a big life with touring. When he lived in Arizona he had a month to himself in a friend’s home, one night he had the choice to drink a bottle of vodka or head to the piano, so he chose the latter and wrote the song Broken which again is from the new album. Next is a treat – the Tea Party hit, Coming Home (I can hear Jim Morrison in his voice on this tune). In the middle of this song he cuts into Fire In the Head but hardly touches the surfaces of this brilliant song and its followed by The Badger with a small hint of Sister Awake at the start. This song ends with rapturous applause by the punters who are just warming up at this stage. A cover of Love the One Your With is rather disappointing considering the back catalogue of own his music he could have sung.

Good heckling tonight from the crowd as he tells us that his love affair with Australia happened in 1994 when he first came here. So we are scooped up and taken to Ireland as we cannot all be in his studio and he sings the song _Lament _which is from his first solo album Exile and the Kingdom, a great song with plenty of rich vocals. During the show there is many guitar swaps, almost after every song – makes sense being the perfectionist that he tells us he is. Sun Going Down gets a great crowd reaction and includes Snakeskin Blues, Whole Lotta Love and The Doors cover Five to One.

For the encore he’s back minus the jacket. He dedicates a song again to the bush fires called Kingdom Calling and with lyrics like ‘I feel the fires, I feel the flames, we’re moving on cos we’re the lucky ones’ it’s a fitting tribute. This song is heaven sent and a truly moving song.

Incense still blessing the stage whilst he heads into part of Halcyon Days and ends on Sister Awake, but I’m disappointed with the way he presents The Tea Party songs. A few songs are snippets or just music with ooh’ing and ahh’ing, almost like he enjoys himself waffling on. I realise he may be tired of playing the older songs but either play them all or not at all. Overall an average gig but hey, let’s be honest, I’m sure many of us will be back for more, who can resist with his look, his banter, his accent and those stunning vocals to die for.