Martin Doherty - A Biography

30 years! 30 years of gigs, concerts, festivals, tours, albums... And now a new life in the Blue Mountains, a beautiful grown up family, cats, dogs, horses and a whole new set of challenges. I started playing at the age of 13. I was working the boats from Dublin to Liverpool, learning the guitar and listening to the sessions at Slattery's every Saturday night, dreaming of being on stage. It all changed when my brother Ned and I emigrated to Australia in 1971.

I formed the Bold Crew soon after I got to Australia, followed by the very successful Raglan Road with great musicians like Jim Donnelly and Tom Minogue. Those were heady days touring with Christy Moore, the Fureys, the Dubliners, the Chieftains among others, doing film scores, TV appearances, you name it. But touring can be disruptive to family life, so Raglan Road eventually split.

Enter the Sons of Roisin, soon to be just Roisin (due to the cost of signwriting in the 70's) and a 17 year residency at the Mercantile Hotel in Sydney. Again, Roisin had some great musicians including co-founder Alan Healy and we played all around the traps producing two albums in the process. When I finally finished the Merc gig, I'd more or less had enough, so I had a break from music for a year and we moved out of Sydney. I suppose my reputation has been largely based on a blend of protest songs from around the world coupled with strong Irish ballads. But I've always written my own songs and had success with them and, since moving out of town, the fresh air has given me a new lease on writing.

Check out the original stuff on the "Dare to Struggle, Dare to Win" - you can look forward to much more in this direction in the near future.