Though Walter Martin is perhaps best known as a founding member of New York indie rockers The Walkmen, over the past decade he has carved out a unique niche for himself outside of the traditional music industry, composing award-winning pieces for film and television while releasing a series of distinctly non-commercial solo albums - some serious, some humorous, some for children, some for midlife crises - that have garnered critical acclaim everywhere from The NY Times Magazine to NPR. 

Written in the cold, bleak winter of 2021-22, Martin's latest album, The Bear, is an unexpectedly warm and inviting collection of songs that focuses on the power of human connection. The beautiful songs, with spacious arrangements, are centred around fingerpicking on a '55 Gretch and romantic piano songs by Oscar-nominated composer Emile Mosseri. Like much of Martin's catalogue, The Bear is fuelled by an infectious love of language, but this time the lyrics leave more to the imagination and step away from explicit storylines in favour of more abstract streams of consciousness. 

Musical power food for fans of Wilco/Jeff Tweedy, Ryan Adams, Bright Eyes,...

'Martin's songwriting is bittersweet and reflective, full of musings on music and family and an uncertain future...A warmth radiates from The Bear...His friendly-raconteur approach to songwriting, his self-effacing humour, his weathered voice, his optimism and disinterest in fronting as cool-it's all there.' Pitchfork 

'He makes just the sweetest most uplifting songs...He's just such a great storyteller and lyricist-I love his music so much.' NPR Music