Martinez and Guthrie

"After listening to it I decided it fit perfectly into what we do at the XM Café. Gus has a beautiful voice and Joe's sense of arrangement is equal."

- Bill Evans, XMCafe Program Director - Independent

Written by Jordan Edwards

Three years ago, Joe Martinez and Gus Guthrie were just a couple of Fairfax County school teachers. The duo made a debut album, "Gathering Change," in December 2006, but lacked the connections to expand beyond Northern Virginia. Then, at a Jonah Smith show at Vienna's Jammin' Java, Martinez seized an opportunity.

"[Smith] thanked some people in the audience from XM radio," he recalls. "There weren't many people there, so I thought I could pick them out."

Martinez targeted the wrong guys, but his wife Nalini asked Smith to locate the ones they sought.

"He pointed them out to her, and she handed them a CD," Martinez says. "That was it."

Nalini laughs off her persistence.

"It wouldn't have worked if the music wasn't great," she says. "Joe's very kind to give me credit, but it's all him."

Regardless of who deserves the credit, Martinez and Guthrie were on the air within weeks of the encounter. They wouldn't have known if a former student hadn't tipped Guthrie off.

"We had no idea they were playing it," Guthrie says. "I had XM at the time. I turned it on, and one of our songs came on. You never get tired of that."

The Takoma Park Folk Festival Web site claims the band sounds like "Jackson Browne and Paul Simon meet Jack Johnson." With tender, introspective lyrics and world beat percussion reminiscent of Simon's "Graceland" period, the description isn't far off.

"We moved to the States when I was 1, but the music continued," says the Puerto Rican-born Martinez. "It was the music I liked and it found its way into what we do."

Soon after satellite radio started spinning tunes like "Home," Martinez, 33, backed away from his sixth-grade teaching job to concentrate on music. Many spouses would question such a decision, but not Nalini.

"I think it's fantastic," she says. "He loves kids, but he didn't have time for his music. I had a stable job, so I encouraged him to do it. When his songs started to get played on satellite radio, it was vindication. I'm very proud of him."

It helps that the couple have yet to start a family, but Martinez and Nalini have no intentions of packing up for Los Angeles or Nashville.

"Our big goal is to get into film and TV," Martinez says. "We're not in our early 20s, so we can't just drop everything and go."

At 54, Guthrie sings with the smooth indie rasp of a much younger man. He can't quite pin down the duo's style, admitting that his country and Americana background adds a Western tinge to their sound. Married with three children, he can't see himself giving up his post as an art teacher at Glasgow Middle School. Still, the Arlington resident is excited to make his mark after decades of garage bands.

"It's a gas," he says. "I've always been someone who makes stuff. To me, music is the same thing [as art]. You're creating something that wasn't there before."

Each of the musicians may be at a different point in life, but they intend to stick together.

"I don't think I'll ever go solo," Martinez says. "Gus can't make a full-time commitment to music right now. I could see myself producing or being a part of other projects to help further a career in music for myself. I know Gus would be very supportive of that."

Guthrie is the voice of the outfit, but Martinez is the primary songwriter and producer. He often disappears into his basement recording studio for eight hours at a time, tweaking tracks and laying down new ideas. After he's satisfied, Martinez takes his creations to producer-engineer Mike Fisher at Northern Virginia's Bias Studios for mixing.

"It's emotional stuff," Fisher says. "The lyrics are very poetic. Musically, it has a nice, simple edge that's really accessible to a lot of people."

Though multi-talented, Martinez knows his limitations.

"Joe has a unique ability to listen to a song and put in what he needs," Fisher remarks. "He plays a lot of instruments, but he knows when to go get somebody else."

Sunday will mark Martinez and Guthrie's first appearance at TPFF. They often play as a duo, but Guthrie is looking forward to hitting the Grove Stage with a full band.

"It gets much more danceable," he explains. "It's a totally different thing. When you have a drummer and bass player behind you, it's a lot of fun."

The words aren't bad, either.

Martinez and Guthrie will perform on the Grove Stage at the Takoma Park Folk Festival at noon on Sunday.
- Maryland Gazette