Martin Gilmore Music - May 2026

Greetings from Alaska!

I am in the Last Frontier State playing guitar with Jackson Emmer at some arts council concerts around the state. The sun is way up, and it’s reasonably nice outside so far. April was a nice respite from the frenzy of tour life, but we are back to it now. The biggest news was that I released a new song “Last Ride of An Old Cowhand” is out now and streaming everywhere. Go listen if you haven’t already! I got a lot of fun songs written for my Patreon Songsmith Series, enjoyed some family time, and caught up with some friends. I promoted and hosted the SWRFA New Mexico Roots Music Summit along with Lindsay Taylor and Brian Nelson from Queen Bee Music Association in Santa Fe, NM. It was great to get to know the folks from that music scene and hear about all the wonderful things happening down that way. We had the open mic at the very cool El Rey Court hotel, which is a place you should check out if you’re ever down that way. I also played a lovely house concert out there and Lindsay and Brian joined me for a few songs. I love Santa Fe, and had a great time producing the Roots Music Summit there. 

May is back to full throttle. 

I’m playing in Alaska with Jackson Emmer over the next several days.April 30th - Seward, Alaska - Arts Council Concert

May 3rd - Haines, Alaska - Arts Council Concert

May 5th - Skagway, Alaska - Arts Council Concert

May 7th - Valdez, Alaska - Arts Council Concert

May 9th - Bethel, Alaska - Workshop and Arts Council Concert

If you know anyone in any of these places, or nearby (is that even a possibility in Alaska?) Please let them know! If you don’t know much about Jackson Emmer, check out his website Jacksonemmer.com and listen to his music. He’s a great songwriter and a frequent collaborator of Tom Paxton and Tim O’Brien.

May 16th I will be back in Denver, Colorado playing at Stranahan’s Distillery for their Cask Thief event. This is a whiskey tasting where they open old hidden barrels and let folks taste special batches of whiskey of different ages. I’ll be playing a songwriter’s set and trying to remember every whiskey related song I know (which are several).

May 21st I will be at Swallow Hill Music Association in Denver, Colorado for my classes and their student showcase starting at 6:30pm. It’s free to the public and you can hear some of the songs the songwriting class has been working on, the new licks and tricks from the bluegrass guitar students, and the full set from the Swallow Hill Bluegrass Band Class (this semester they are called The Rocky Flats Meltdown). It’s free to the public!

May 25th & 26th I will be in Kerrville, Texas playing and teaching at the Kerrville Folk Festival. I’ll be on stage at the Threadgill Amphitheater on the 26th at 8pm. I’ll be offering two workshops one about editing songs on May 25th, and one about character development on May 26th. If you are a songwriter, or a songwriting enthusiast and you have never been to the Kerrville Folk Festival, you are really missing out. It is one of the best places to be immersed in creativity and camaraderie around songwriting. 

May 30th I will be in Boulder, Colorado playing the Stone Cottage Studios with dobro singer Abbie Gardner. She’s an amazing songwriter, musician and instrumentalist from Nashville, and one of my favorite folks to hang out with. We will be collaborating on a few songs and playing some stuff solo. I cannot recommend her highly enough, and the Stone Cottage Studios is a wonderful venue. I’m very excited for this show. Check it out here, tell your friends, and please come and join us!May 31st I will be back at Swallow Hill at 9am producing the Colorado Roots Music Summit, which is a small music conference for DIY folk musicians in Colorado. We will have panels and discussions, performance opportunities for attendees, and the admission price includes lunch. If you are interested in the roots music business in Colorado, come join us there!

I am taking a break from teaching classes for a couple of months since my travel schedule is so crazy, but I will be offering a single day workshop on bluegrass guitar on May 17th at Swallow Hill starting at 3pm. If you want to learn some basics of playing bluegrass guitar come join me!I am also pressing pause on my Songsmith Series on Patreon for the summer, but it will return in the fall (and I might post some bonus songs during the summer. I learned last year that it was really hard to find the recording time to get the songs tracked so I could post them. But, the songwriting will continue!One last thing that I wanted to let you all know about. I recently joined the board of the non-profit Howlin’ Dog Music Group (HDMG). We raise money from friends and fellow music lovers to provide small grants to singer-songwriter and give them a little financial boost to share their art with the world. With the decline of CD sales and the rise of streaming, it’s become more and more difficult to recoup the costs of recording music, so we try to help out a little bit. The organization focuses on musicians from Colorado, New Mexico, and Texas and this year we selected eleven wonderful artists from those states as grant recipients. 

One reason I'm telling you all this is that HDMG could use your help in supporting the next class of grant recipients, and hopefully even increasing our reach to help more of these fabulous artists touch and uplift even more of us music lovers out in this crazy world. We think it's important work, and we'd love you to join us. If interested, just go to our website at https://www.howlindogmusicgroup.org and click on the donate button. You can become a monthly patron for as little as $25.00 per month or you can make a one-time donation. Every little bit helps! You can mail a check to PO Box 825, Alamosa, CO 81101 if you’d rather.  You can check out the 2026 HDMG grant recipients on the website here  https://www.howlindogmusicgroup.org/2026-projects .

Happy spring! Follow me on social media to see pictures from Alaska and keep up with my travels this month.