Martin Sexton, a well-known, award-winning singer-songwriter, is currently on tour for his “Abbey Road Show.” In his off-stage role, however, he is junior Shane Sexton’s father, and as a result has provided Shane access to people, places, and experiences foreign to many his age.
Sexton has officially released 10 studio albums that cover a blend of genres such as soul, gospel, country, and rock. According to the South Orange Performing Arts Center, his music journey all started in eighth grade in his hometown of Syracuse, N.Y., when he started a rock and roll band. After years of singing and playing guitar in high school, Sexton decided to move to the Boston area in hopes of making a name for himself in the world of folk music. After performing at numerous open-mic nights in the bustling areas of the city in 1989, he quickly achieved this goal.
By 1994, Sexton was awarded the National Academy of Songwriters Artist of the Year and started to work alongside many well-known artists such as John Mayer, who claims that “Martin Sexton is the best live performer I’ve ever seen. I may just quit my job and go follow Martin and make a fuss everywhere I go, just to make sure that people don’t go their lives without hearing this man sing to them.”
Obviously, Shane has heard his dad sing quite a lot, and when asked which song is his favorite, Shane claimed that it would either be “Diner” from Black Sheep or “Set in Stone” from Mixtape of the Open Road.
Listening to his dad’s songs is not the only thing Shane does, however. Right now, during the “Abbey Road Show”—the tour of Sexton’s most recent album, 2020 Vision, produced by three-time Grammy-nominee John Alagia—Shane has semi-adopted the position as a merchandise (merch) seller. Shane loves selling merch mainly because he gets to “meet a lot of people” he wouldn’t otherwise cross paths with. He also finds it “great to hear what people think about music” and enjoys telling his dad after the shows.
Likewise, when interacting with the fans while selling t-shirts, sweatshirts, or whatever it may be, Shane describes those conversations as “really funny” because “sometimes they know immediately that I’m his son, whereas other times they don’t know it, and will slowly figure it out after talking for ten minutes.”
After becoming increasingly aware of his father’s reputation in the music industry over the course of his childhood, Shane still “didn’t really see him any different.”
“He was just my dad,” he said.
However, a dad that “just start[s] playing the guitar and singing in the middle of the kitchen.” This liveliness and musical atmosphere is not common in every household, but Shane has been lucky enough to experience it.
The fun of having a famous musician as a dad doesn’t end in the kitchen. For example, Shane often travels to see him on tour.
“Every winter my mom and I will fly out somewhere cool to meet him. The past two years we have gone to California. We flew out to L.A. and spent a week out there with him and that was really fun,” he said.
“When I was ten, though, we lived in Europe for three months when he did a little tour out there and we just traveled around. We had an apartment in this little town called Todi, Italy,” he explained. “I wish I could go to more [shows] because they are fun,” Shane emphasized, but he simply cannot afford to travel as frequently due to how often the shows overlap with school days.
Shane will always consider his dad as a “great role model,” and will always “look up to him a lot” and “try to be like him,” he added.
Shane feels that appreciation for his dad’s music is very minimal at Williston, which he believes is mainly because his dad’s “demographic of listeners isn’t really kids our age.” However, within Sexton’s demographic, he is highly admired and bears a loyal following.
During a Friday assembly on Nov. 8, Williston hosted Matt Butler, a singer songwriter known for his poetry and storytelling. Following the performance, Shane was curious enough to spark a conversation. He found a sense of familiarity with Butler considering that he and Shane’s dad pursue a similar genre of music. When Shane mentioned his dad’s name, Butler immediately knew who he was, and according to Shane, said that “he has a pretty big name in our industry.”
Sexton, in the opinion of the New York Times, “jumps beyond standard fare on the strength of his voice, a blue-eyed soul man’s supple instrument,” adding that “his unpretentious heartiness helps him focus on every soul singer’s goal: to amplify the sound of the ordinary heart.”
Additionally, Billboard noted that he is “the real thing, people, a star with potential to permanently affect the musical landscape and keep us entertained for years to come.”
Some of Sexton’s upcoming performances are as follows: Nov. 22 in Rochester, N.H. at the Rochester Opera House, Jan. 24 in Ridgefield, Conn. at the Ridgefield Playhouse, and Jan. 31 in Boston, Mass. at the City Winery Boston. More show dates are listed on Sexton’s website.
If you find yourself at any of these shows, listening to what the Rolling Stone can only describe as a “soul-marinated voice,” be on the lookout for Shane, and be sure to support him and his dad by buying some merch.
