Martha Haehl

Why buy a couch when you can buy a dobro? This question summarizes my lifetime of choices to balance my time and money to make music front and center in my life. Musical instruments that I claim to play include guitar, flute, fiddle, mandolin, piano/keyboards, bass (both electric and stand-up), dobro, autoharp, banjo, saxophone, harmonicas and my newest, ukulele.

Ukelele came to my consciousness as a real instrument from jamming with Mike and Vicki Walker and going to a Lil’ Rev concert at Mountain Music Shoppe. I had a break through in playing ukulele when I went on a week long jam cruise and took ukulele but not a guitar. Chord positions finally became automatic rather than something I had to translate and transpose from what I knew about guitar.

I have performed many musical styles including old-time string band, traditional and contemporary folk (American and British Iles), original songs and tunes, rock and roll, choral music, jazz, blues, country-western, country swing and western. But my favorite style leans towards gypsy jazz—a
crossover between swing jazz and acoustic music. Nothing can be finer than to serve up “Sweet Georgia Brown,” “Lazy Bones,” and numerous other old standards with an acoustic guitar, fiddle, bass, mandolin and flute.

Past groups include "Rosy’s Bar and Grill," the "Waffles," "New Reflections," "Wit’s End," "Sister Blue Note," "Woody and Martha: Spontaneous Composition" and my current group, "Checkered Past." Mike and Vicki and I also perform as "Two Ukes and a Flute." And I am doing solo gigs at retirement facilities.

Most famous and/or memorable gigs include Garrison Keillor’s Lake Wobegon, Winfield Acoustic Music Festival and San Francisco Folk Music Club—all in the late 1970s. I have also played at bluegrass and folk festivals, clubs and at the Nelson Art Museum Sprint Friday Night Concert Series.

Martha