Rory Gallagher has found his heir
When sacred monsters are disturbed, the reaction is almost always the same: hands on, everyone calm down, let’s think twice. In Ireland they certainly thought twice before associating the name of Dom Martin to that of Rory Gallagher, undisputed genius and most glorious exponent of Irish rock. Gallagher in Ireland is – rightly – an untouchable deity. And it is precisely for this reason that, if “The Irish Times” compares Dom’s sound to Rory’s unrivaled six-string, one seriously wonders what is special about this thirty-year-old from County Antrim.
The most immediate answer, probably also the most superficial, is the following: in his guitar, in the way he plays it, in the notes that come out of it there are all the demons that the blues has always exorcised over the centuries. Demons that for Dom arise from the relationship with his father, Micky Savage, also a musician. “My father’s life wasn’t easy. He saw the most violent years of the Troubles in Belfast and lost his parents when he was just 10. I miss him every day, but it was a nightmare to live with him. He drank and smoked too much and wouldn’t change his habits for anyone. But I feel lucky to have cared for him in the worst year of his illness, the last year of his life.” Among the waves of a stormy relationship, a lighthouse: the guitar that his father gives him when Dom is still a child.
“Music is like breathing. I live alone, by choice. The only way I can function as a human being is by being alone. I have a hard time socializing and I’m anxious. Even as a child, if someone came to our house I would pick up the guitar and start playing. It was my way of saying: look at me, I’m waving at you.”
In 2017, an unknown 27-year-old Dominic Martin Savage takes the stage at a golf club near his home. One of the open-mic nights he’s been attending for years in clubs across Northern Ireland. Life doesn’t smile at himmoney is tight and she struggles to support her newborn son, Luke. “I’m trying not to make the same mistakes as my father, I want the best for him. I live with little and the only reason I care about money is to improve his life.” That evening, at the golf club, someone in the audience is impressed by his talent and makes a phone call to a friend who works in the music industry. For Dom it is the turning point.
Two years later his was born first studio album“Spain to Italy”, also applauded by British critics. From then on Martin wins six UK Blues Awards in various categories: best solo artist, best acoustic blues act, best instrumentalist And best album. Until the “musician of the year” a few months ago. The second album, “A Savage Life”, is worth a place in the UK Blues Hall of Fame. The greatest joy? A phone call from the international auction house Bonhams, asking him to play at the private event dedicated to his hero’s guitar collection: Rory Gallagher.
“Rory is my idol. I am inspired by him as a person as well as an absolutely incredible musician, singer and songwriter. He carved his own path and it made him a better man. He played places where others didn’t go. His music was visceral and raw. He was himself. At the auction they made me play his guitars: I was shaking.”
On his latest album – a 2024 live double, “Buried alive“- there is all the essence of Martin. The debt towards Gallagher is evident, especially in songs like “Unhinged” or “Dixie black hand”, but it is equally clear that Dom does not copy: he emulates. Electric or acoustic it doesn’t matter: he does everything with both. “Buried alive” is a testament, the telling of his story. There are the addictions inherited from his father, from which he managed to detoxify; There are the years of apprenticeship in the pubs, the pints of Guinness, the money collected in the hat for his son; there are low clouds, Irish cliffs, and a blues that hasn’t been heard like this for a while.
