Love Police will introduce Australian audiences to one of the most quietly powerful songwriters to emerge from the American folk scene this century. Portland, Oregon musician Jeffrey Martin will tour Australia for the first time in March 2026, performing intimate shows in Melbourne and Sydney and appearing at the Port Fairy Folk Festival and Blue Mountains Music Festival.
Martin’s arrival has been a long time coming. For more than a decade, he has been quietly shaping a reputation across the US and Europe for songs that move with stillness and truth. His latest record, Thank God We Left The Garden, released through Portland’s cult label Fluff and Gravy Records, captures the raw immediacy that defines his artistry. It is his fourth full-length album, following 2017’s One Go Around, which No Depression called “the poetry of America”.
The new album was not recorded in a studio but in a small eight-by-ten-foot shack Martin built in his backyard in southeast Portland. Using two inexpensive microphones, he tracked the songs live and alone, often pausing to let the rumble of passing trucks fade or waiting for the clank of a heater to stop. Those imperfections became part of the character of the record.
“There was a magic quality to the sounds I was getting in the shack,” Martin said. “It was a lucky recipe of time and place that allowed my voice and guitar to come together with the kind of honesty I was craving.”
That honesty runs through the heart of Thank God We Left The Garden, a collection of songs that embrace imperfection and reflect a world spinning too fast. Martin describes the record as a reaction to the chaos of modern life — the churn of politics, technology, and noise. “I needed to know that even in this day and age, just a few simple ingredients still hold up,” he said.
With minimal production — mostly voice and guitar, with occasional bursts of classical guitar — the songs feel close and real, their warmth carried by Martin’s distinctive voice. Across its tracks, Thank God We Left The Garden invites the listener to pause, breathe, and remember the human side of living. It’s an album made of questions rather than answers, humble and observant, celebrating the beauty of asking rather than knowing.
Martin’s songwriting recalls the narrative craft of artists like John Prine, Gregory Alan Isakov, and Iron & Wine, blending keen observation with gentle introspection. His previous album Dogs In The Daylight was hailed by No Depression as “as close to a masterpiece as a folk album by an emerging singer-songwriter can get”, and his career has continued to unfold in slow, deliberate steps, built on live performances that leave rooms hushed and listeners transformed.
The Australian tour will mark Martin’s debut on local stages. Presented by Love Police, the March 2026 run includes headline dates and festival appearances, offering audiences a rare chance to see a songwriter who operates entirely on his own terms.
Joining Martin on the tour is Castlemaine-based country folk artist Matthew Colin, whose storytelling style and understated delivery make him a fitting companion for Martin’s Australian debut.
Martin’s records are not designed for the algorithm but for the listener who still sits with an album from beginning to end. Thank God We Left The Garden is the kind of work that rewards patience, its songs revealing their weight with each listen. “I feel like I’ve only just learned how to sing,” Martin admits. “Like I’ve been chasing this record since my very first recordings.”
JEFFREY MARTIN (USA)
With Matthew Colin (AUS)
MARCH 2026
11 – George Lane, St Kilda, VIC
12 – Wesley Anne, Northcote, VIC
13 – Factory Floor, Sydney, NSW
Also performing at Port Fairy Folk Festival and Blue Mountains Music Festival
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