Honing their craft over the past decade, Martin & Wood have cemented themselves as firm favourites as “one of the UK’s finest folk acts” not only on the Westcountry scene, but nationally, and internationally too. Their status, and fast-growing fan-base is not only testament to the pair’s prowess as songwriters and musicians, but as people too.

Martin & Wood are two of the hardest working musicians on the scene and wear their hearts very much on their sleeves in terms of their songwriting. The pair glide gracefully through laments of past relationships, and life experiences, as well as highlighting the important topics of the day, namely mental health awareness, and homelessness. Without being pigeonholed into any stereotypical genre, the instrumentation of the band is vast, and varied. Martin (stage right) plays acoustic and high-strung (Nashville tuning) guitar, mandolin, and bass drum, while partner in crime Wood (stage left) plays acoustic and electric guitar, tambourine, snare drum, and the piano.

The pairs’ musical and vocal dexterity dovetail beautifully on the co-written songs, which range from beautiful, emotive ballads, to up-beat, foot stomping, hands in the air, sing-along anthems. The dynamic duo and their musical creations translate very well onto recorded media, but it is in the live arena where the pair truly excel. There is a certain majesty about their live performances that simply cannot be put into words. It is this “je ne sais quoi” that keeps their loyal fans returning from far and wide to see these two perform. It is not just nearly two hours of high-quality live music you get for the entrance fee, a Sound of the Sirens show is much more than that. The onstage chemistry, camaraderie, and banter is worth the ticket price alone.