MOON MARTIN Shots From A Cold Nightmare

MOON MARTIN Shots from a cold nightmare + Escape from domination 1978/1995 Edsel records 320 kbps

SHOTS FROM A COLD NIGHTMARE* : Hot nite in Dallas / Victim of romance / Nite thoughts / Paid killer / Cadillac walk / Bad case of lovin' you / Hands down / All I've got to do / You don't care about me / She's a pretender.

ESCAPE FROM DOMINATION° : I've got the reason / She made a fool of you / Dreamer / Gun shy / Hot house baby / The feeling's right / Rolene / No chance / Dangerous" / Bootleg woman .

Produced by Graig Leon .

*Moon Martin : guitars & vocals / Gary Valentine : bass guitar / Graig Leon : keyboards / Phil Seymour : drums / Susan Hall : percussion / Charie Merriam : background vocals .

Willie Alexander : piano on "Cadillac walk".

°Moon Martin : vocals , guitars / Graig Leon : keyboards / R. Stoner : bass" / H. Wyeth : drums" + The Ravens : Jude Cole : guitars & vocals / Dennis Croy : bass guitars / Rick Croy : drums.

One of the more curious characters of the new wave movement, singer/guitarist/songwriter Moon Martin issued several critically acclaimed yet commercially underappreciated releases from the late '70s through the early '80s, before reappearing in the mid-'90s. Born John Martin in Oklahoma during 1950, Martin played in local bands, including a rockabilly group, the Disciples, while attending the University of Oklahoma. Martin relocated to Los Angeles in the late '60s and paid the rent as a session musician, playing on albums by Del Shannon and Jackie DeShannon. But soon, his former Disciples bandmates followed him to the land of surf and sun, changing their name to Southwind and issuing a total of three underappreciated country-rock albums on the Blue Thumb label between 1969 and 1973: a self-titled debut, Ready to Ride, and What a Place to Land. Upon the group's split, Martin returned to session work, contributing to Jesse Ed Davis' Ululu, Linda Ronstadt's Silk Purse, and a few Gram Parsons songs that have gone unreleased. Martin also began to focus on a solo career at this time, adopting the nickname "Moon" from friends, after it became an inside joke at the songwriter's penchant for mentioning the word in his compositions.

Shots From a Cold Nightmare is a catchy batch of radio-flavored rock &roll, even though Martin's songs can seem to get a little too serious when it comes to the perils of infidelity, which is what most of them are about. While Martin comes through on the somewhat creepy-sounding "Paid Killer," the well-written "Night Thoughts," and on "Victim of Romance," there are still a couple of the album's songs that were bettered by other artists. "Cadillac Walk" sounds more stimulating coming from Mink DeVille on his self-titled release from 1977, and Robert Palmer managed to make a Top 20 hit out of "Bad Case of Loving You" a year after it appeared on Martin's album. Although Palmer and DeVille improved upon these two cuts, Shots From a Cold Nightmare remains one of Martin's most pleasing efforts, equal to 1979's "Escape From Domination" in its accommodating vocal form, but much stronger than both of his releases from the '80s, "Street Fever" and "Mystery Ticket", which fail to relinquish the same amount of Martin's personality or distinctness both lyrically and vocally.