Christina Martin
I was supposed to cap off my 2024 Halifax Fringe Festival with Christina Martin’s big release party for her album Storm (2023) at Alderney Landing Theatre in Dartmouth, but I had to bail on it at the last minute because I had a leak in my roof coming through a light fixture. So, I was very excited this year when I heard that Martin was going to be singing songs from Storm, as well as her two newest singles, at The Carleton, once again on the last day of Fringe, but this time as a matinee.
It was a beautiful concert, especially for a rainy Sunday in Halifax, for us to be very cozy inside The Carleton’s listening space, many folks eating brunch or having mimosas while Christina Martin, accompanied by Dale Murray on electric guitar, Hannah Melanson on piano, Karen Graves on violin, Susan Sayle on viola, and Hilary Brown on cello, treated us to a contemplative, but also hopeful communal experience peppered with sing alongs and fun facts.
The song “Storm,” from whence the album’s title comes, was inspired by Hurricane Juan, which caused much damage to Halifax in September of 2003, but we see the song reflecting on a metaphorical storm as well, one that caused the end of a relationship. Through the lens of the hurricane and with the benefit of hindsight Martin expresses the gratitude that she now has as she sings, “Storm, thank you for coming along/ Storm, came to shake up what I thought was strong.” I felt like this was a recurring theme in the concert- finding the silver linings, and trying to balance the light against the dark.
“In Control” is another song that swings wildly between two extremes, as we get the sense of someone who is trying to balance a healthy lifestyle with their more debaucherous cravings. As the title suggests, our protagonist promises that they will dole out these indulgences responsibly, remaining in control, and the tempo of the song is similarly quite rigid, with freer bursts of electric guitar poetically constrained inside it. I love the line, “when I get scared I read about us in a book/ that someone famous wrote,” suggesting that before this person was so “in control” their escapades were the stuff of legends.
“Little Princess,” a song about the connection between a little girl and her magical older brother, who, like a wizard, is waving his wand over her head as she reads her poems to him, is heartening because we know Martin has achieved such success through her writing, but it is also sad because we get the sense that some misfortune has come to her brother. As Martin repeats “you direct my rhyme” we see that her brother remains forever entwined in her words.
Perhaps the most extreme of the silver lining theme is “Meeting Place” where Martin imagines being able to find Dale, her husband, again in a special spot once they have both died. Another recurring line in the album is “stay with me.” She begins this song this way, and there is another song called “Stay With Me,” a haunting plea from someone who is aging in the thick of the pandemic world. One wonders whether the refrain is directed to a specific person, or to society, even normalcy itself. Hearing this song yesterday at the Carleton, within our current circumstances- being able to sit and eat and drink together in such a tight, compact space with just average or minimal Anxiety- is in itself the silver lining. In “Healed” Martin sings, “Don’t be so hard, it’s not your voice… it may take time for us to heal/ don’t be so hard/ we shall be healed.” She repeats that line “don’t be so hard,” pushing back against both the hard/unkind things we say to others, but also, I think, those that we more often say to ourselves. Martin said of this song that the “we shall be healed” is aspirational, and in a world so heavy with hatred, deliberate disinformation, ignorance, and fear all around us the call to become softer, gentler, more supple, and uncomplicated is a resonant one.
Martin’s newest single, “Golden Tears,” was written as part of the United Way Halifax’s Songs of the City Initiative, which pairs a songwriter with a local storyteller to create a new piece of music. The experience is described thus, “Written in an afternoon after being introduced to one woman’s deeply moving story of grief, transformation, and resilience, the song captures the profound beauty that can emerge from pain.” It is also a love letter to the Elizabeth Fry Society.
Martin also sang a few songs from some of her older albums, including the iconic “Impossible to Hold,” and the less often heard “Deep Dark Red” from Impossible to Hold (2018), and “This Kind of Pain” from Sleeping With a Stranger (2012). She also performed her powerhouse and heartbreaking rendition of Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus’ “The Winner Takes It All.” Martin would make an incredible Donna Sheridan in Mamma Mia!, she just needs to wait about ten years to be old enough. This is definitely one of my very favourite renditions of this well-covered song.
The concert ended with Martin’s recent single, a song that has not been covered often since it was written and recorded by Andrew Gold in 1978, and then used as the opening theme for The Golden Girls (1985): “Thank You For Being a Friend.” The Golden Girls holds immense significance for me because it was one of my favourite shows that I was allowed to stay up and watch with my Nanny throughout my childhood, and then later we watched it in syndication in the afternoons as well. I downloaded the Andrew Gold version from Kazaa when I was in High School and put it on one of my prized mixed CDs- I believe it was Amanda Hug n’ Kiss 3. The song is an earnest proclamation of love and enduring friendship, with a very ‘70s psychedelically dreamy bridge, but the gratitude inherent in the lyrics perfectly summed up the gratitude that wove its way through the entire concert. Personally, I had to work to keep myself from crying during the last musical interlude, which is so familiar to fans of The Golden Girls, as that wave of nostalgia for a simpler world with my grandmother, and my mom, and my Aunt Carol washed over me. It’s an interesting dichotomy for a song to be both so culturally iconic, but also for it to be so rare and unique to hear it performed live.
I loved getting the chance to hear Christina Martin perform at the Carleton with her three piece strings section; they really add to the emotional depth of the songs from Storm. This was a perfect way to start my busy last Sunday of Fringe. I always encourage anyone who has the opportunity to attend a Christina Martin concert to grab it, and if you haven’t heard this album yet, or her two new singles, make sure you head on over to her BandCamp and check them all out.
You can buy Christina Martin’s albums on vinyl, CD, or digitally via her website, you can also buy them digitally on iTunes, if you’re old fashioned like I am, or you can stream on Spotify or Apple Music. Or, if you live in Halifax, Bedford or Dartmouth, consider buying your music from TAZ or Backstreet Records in Fredericton and Saint John.
You too can see Christina Martin perform live at the following places and times!
September 20th, 2025: Harvest Moon Music Festival (5:00pm) in Bridgewater, Nova Scotia.
October 4th, 2025: Black Point, Nova Scotia at 7:30pm.
October 25th, 2025: Lunenburg Folk Harbour Festival: Weekends at the Opera House at 7:30pm.
October 26th, 2025: Harvey Hall at 7:00pm in Harvey, New Brunswick.
