Barrett Martin

Barrett Harrington Martin (born April 14, 1967) is an American drummer and record producer from Washington. He is perhaps best known for his work with the alternative rock bands Screaming Trees and Mad Season. He was also a member of Skin Yard, Tuatara, and Walking Papers, and has performed as a session musician for many artists in a variety of genres. As a producer, he has won one Latin Grammy and has been nominated in two other categories. As an ethnomusicologist, he has produced two albums for the Shipibo Shamans in the Peruvian Amazon Rainforest, and one album for the Neets'ai Gwich'in in the Alaskan Arctic.

Biography

Martin was born and raised in Olympia, Washington, and studied music for two years at Western Washington University before dropping out and moving to Seattle to join that city's late-1980s alternative rock scene. He later earned bachelor's and master's degrees in ethnomusicology from the University of New Mexico While still a member of Skin Yard, Martin was recruited by Screaming Trees and played on their successful 1992 album Sweet Oblivion. He then joined Screaming Trees full-time and remained with that band until it split in 2000. In the meantime, Martin formed the grunge supergroup Mad Season with Mike McCready, Layne Staley, and Baker Saunders; that band released the album Above in 1995, after which the members returned to their full-time bands. Martin formed another supergroup, Tuatara, in 1996 with Peter Buck; Martin produced nine albums with this group until it split in 2014.

Martin was ordained as a Zen monk in 2000, and started the company Sunyata Records & Books (now known as Sunyata Media) in 2001. He began recording as Barrett Martin Group in 2004, and has released ten studio albums under that name. He was appointed adjunct professor of ethnomusicology at Antioch University-Seattle from 2010 to 2017.

Martin formed the supergroup Walking Papers with Jeff Angell and Duff McKagan in 2012, and played on that band's first two albums. In 2013 he started writing a music and culture blog for The Huffington Post, and frequently writes for Riot Material. Martin won the ASCAP Deems Taylor/Virgil Thomson Award in 2014 for his writing. He formed yet another supergroup, Levee Walkers, with McKagan and McCready in 2016.

In 2016, Martin produced the album Jardim-Pomar by Brazilian musician Nando Reis, which won a Latin Grammy the following year. In 2017, Martin published the book The Singing Earth, recounting his musical experiences in multiple genres and nations. His second book The Way of the Zen Cowboy was published in 2019. In recent years he has produced albums for CeDell Davis (Even The Devil Gets The Blues) and Ayron Jones Joy Harjo (I Pray For My Enemies), Hector Tellez Jr. His third book The Greatest Band That Ever Wasn't: The Story Of The Roughest, Toughest, Most Hell-Raising Band To Ever Come Out Of The Pacific Northwest, The Screaming Trees was released in 2023.

In 2019, Martin formed the supergroup Silverlites (featuring R.E.M.'s Peter Buck, The Black Crowes' Rich Robinson, and singer/songwriter Joseph Arthur) and released their self-titled debut in 2024.

Discography

Barrett Martin Group The Painted Desert – 2004 Earthspeaker – 2006 Zenga – 2009 Atlas – 2011 Artifact – 2012 Transcendence – 2018 Songs of the Firebird – 2019 Indwell – 2019 Stillpoint – 2020 Scattered Diamonds – 2020

Mad Season Above – 1995 Above (Deluxe Edition) – 2013

Screaming Trees Sweet Oblivion – 1992 Dust – 1996 Last Words: The Final Recordings – 2011

Shipibo Shamans

Woven Songs Of The Amazon – 2006 Woven Songs Of The Amazon II – 2019

Skin Yard

1000 Smiling Knuckles – 1991 Inside the Eye – 1993 Start at the Top – 2001

Tuatara Breaking the Ethers – 1997 Trading with the Enemy – 1998 Cinemathique – 2002 The Loading Program – 2003 East of the Sun – 2007 West of the Moon – 2007 The Here and the Gone – 2009 Underworld – 2014 Shamanic Nights: Live in the City – 2016

Walking Papers

Walking Papers – 2012 WP2 – 2018

Others

Thin Men – A Round Hear – 1989 Mike Johnson – Where Am I – 1994 Various Artists – Working Class Hero – 1995 Seaweed – Spanaway – 1995 Mike Johnson – Year of Mondays – 1996 Luna – Pup Tent – 1997 Mark Eitzel – West – 1997 Protein – Ever Since I was a Kid – 1997 Various Artists – Flying Traps – 1997 R.E.M. – Up – 1998 Mark Lanegan – I'll Take Care of You – 1999 Stone Temple Pilots – No. 4 – 1999 Various Artists – More Oar – 1999 Victoria Williams – Water to Drink – 2000 Mark Olson – My Own Jo Ellen – 2000 The Twilight Singers – Twilight as Played by The Twilight Singers – 2000 Nando Reis – Para Quando o Arco-Íris Encontrar o Pote de Ouro – 2000 Queens of the Stone Age – Rated R – 2000 Therapy? – Shameless – 2001 Nando Reis – Infernal – 2001 CeDell Davis – When Lightnin' Struck the Pine – 2002 Alex Veley – Maconha Baiana – 2003 Nando Reis – A Letra A – 2003 Nero – Confession No. 1 – 2003 Roger Greenway – Wayt – 2004 Jack Endino – Permanent Fatal Error – 2005 Shipibo Shamans – Woven Songs of the Amazon – 2006 Bola Abimbola – Ara Kenge – 2006 Dave Carter – Commitment and Change – 2008 Under The Rose – Under the Rose – 2009 Rusty Willoughby – CoBirds Unite – 2010 Nando Reis e Os Infernais – Sei – 2012 Mark Lanegan – Imitations – 2013 Vaudeville Etiquette – Debutantes & Dealers – 2014 CeDell Davis – Last Man Standing – 2015 CeDell Davis – Even The Devil Gets The Blues – 2016 Buffalo Summer – Second Sun – 2016 Ayron Jones – Audio Paint Job – 2017 Various Artists – The Singing Earth – 2017 Levee Walkers & Ayron Jones – 2017 Walking Papers – WP2 – 2018 Shipibo Shamans – Woven Songs of the Amazon II – 2019 Arctic Neets'ai Gwich'in – A Message to the World – 2020 Buffalo Summer – Desolation Blue – 2020 Joy Harjo – I Pray for My Enemies – 2021 Ayron Jones – Child of the State – 2021 Jack Endino – Set Myself On Fire – 2021 Hector Tellez Jr. – The Great Unknown 2023 Nando Reis – Uma Estrela Misteriosa Revelará o Segredo – 2024

Film soundtracks Deceiver – 1998 The Best Men – 1999 Lush – 1999 The Fog Ravens – 2003 Ausangate – 2006 Woven Songs of the Amazon – 2006 The Last Bluesman – 2022