Jeffrey Martin

Portland, Oregon folk artist Jeffrey Martin has announced his first-ever live album, Alive July 25, 2025, which is set to release on February20,2026via Fluff & Gravy Records (Anna Tivel, Margo Cilker, Kassi Valazza). The album was recorded at Portland’s The Showdown and presents an unabridged take of the night exactly as it unfolded — whatever mistakes may have occurred, whatever musical wanderings — in the hopes that the magic of the live show could be captured in an honest way.

In addition to accompanying Martin on acoustic and electric guitar and singing some harmonies during the show, Sam Weber (Madison Cunningham, Bahamas, Anna Tivel) also  recorded and mixed the album, which was then mastered by Jon Neufeld. The 16-track set includes previously released songs from throughout Martin’s sixteen-year recording career, as well as a cover of Neil Young’s “Out On The Weekend” and a new song called “1519,” the latter of which he is sharing as a single today. See below for a full tracklisting.

Of the new track, Martin says, “‘1519’ is a song apart from all of my others. After reading Buddy Levy’s book Conquistador, I wanted to crawl inside the mind of Hernán Cortés. From his own letters he seemed blindly certain that his mission, no matter how brutal to the people he met in the Americas, was a righteous one. That with God and Spain on his side he was infallible. It made me wonder what we are blind to today that future historians might look back on in disbelief and disgust. ‘1519’ is an attempt to place myself on the boat, to stand next to Cortés, to feel him as a man instead of some unreachable, towering, historical figure.”

Alive July 25, 2025 follows 2023’s heralded LP Thank God We Left The Garden, which UNCUT deemed “a masterpiece in any time zone.” MOJO praised, “Reminiscent of early Nathaniel Rateliff and John Moreland, and prime John Prine, there’s no reason to doubt that Martin might one day eclipse them all,” and Paste Magazineadded, “A stunner of a record, with songs that are stark in their simplicity, yet emotionally rich in a way that can catch your breath in your throat or leave your eyes suddenly damp.” Americana UK declared, “Martin has delivered one of the finest albums of recent times,” and Folk Alley called it “a sonic stream that tumbles forward with tender resignation, amused wonder, and serene joy.” Thank God We Left The Garden was Martin’s third album, behind 2017’s One Go Around and 2014’s Dogs In The Daylight, the latter of which No Depression called “as close to a masterpiece as a folk album by an emerging singer-songwriter can get.”