Barbara Martin and Mac Walter’s music is a rich stew of earthy blues peppered with sassy, swinging jazz.  Their performances are rooted in a healthy respect for the traditions of American music from Josh White to Bessie Smith to Billie Holiday.  Martin’s sultry, soulful voice combined with the bending, sliding strings of guitar wizard Mac Walter captivate audiences.  They have performed at numerous festivals and concerts in the United States and Europe, including The Kennedy Center and Fleet Blues Festival, Albany, NY.  

Vocalist Barbara Martin is best known not only for being an accomplished interpreter of the great jazz and blues standards; but also for her ability to stretch the boundaries of the female jazz and blues singer image.  She writes award-winning songs.  She plays guitar.  She collaborates with other acclaimed artists to produce engaging live shows and music education programs.  She’s as comfortable in a New York cabaret show or a major venue like The Kennedy Center as she is in an intimate house concert or a bohemian cafe.  Her expertise and talent place her squarely in the company of the legends she teaches about in her educational series “Women of Blues and Jazz,” but it’s her ability to transition smoothly from chanteuse to girl-next-door to perceptive poet that makes her so delightfully her own woman

Three-time WAMMIE winner Mac Walter began his music career at 15 when Marianne Price, formerly of Dan Hicks and The Hot Licks/The Kinks, convinced him to give up the ukulele and try the guitar. Three months later, Mac was playing in Marianne’s band and he has not put the guitar down since. Music became the guiding force in a life spent as a professional musician.

In the 1960’s Mac developed his unique fingerstyle approach to playing folk, rock, blues, jazz, and country and taught students at the Charlie Byrd Studio in Bethesda, Maryland. Heavily influenced by folk luminaries such as Doc Watson, Mississippi John Hurt, Dave Van Ronk, Dick Rosmini, and especially by his guitar mentor, Raun MacKinnon Burnham, he totally dedicated himself to his music and refused to be pinned down to one musical genre.