Having earlier this year only just completed a 20-date UK and Ireland tour promoting his latest 'Buried Alive' live double album, recorded at various venues across Europe and the UK, featuring both electric and acoustic tracks from all three of Dom’s original studio albums, Martin still managed somehow to find the time to recently finish another 8-date UK acoustic tour.

Supporting Dom tonight was Thomas Heppell, who I saw for the first time at this very same venue in April last year, impressively supporting Dirt Road Band, and then once again this February as a special guest on the excellent Milkfest '25 bill at London's Indigo at The O2. "Are You Ready?" Thomas smiled, an early indication of his warm stage presence, as the seated audience lapped up his dexterous acoustic/slide guitar work on an eight song Blues set.

A mixture of original compositions and well-chosen covers, including Robert Johnson's 'Rollin' and Tumblin', the amusing crowd participation on Blind Willie Nelson's 'John The Revelator', as well the Brocade Blazer wearer's self penned 'Hey Victoria' and 'Victim Of Circumstance', all complemented his rich and emotive voice, as well as his skilful guitar playing. The former Metropolitan Police officer closed out very aptly, patrolling an appreciative Half Moon gathering with his acoustic guitar and a final BB King cover, plus a snippet of 'Fly Me To The Moon'.

Similarly, the first and last time I saw Dom was at London's Dingwalls back in January on his aforementioned 'Buried Alive' tour, where we experienced the best of both world's from this former 2023 WRC Best Blues Rock award winner with a solo acoustic and a full band set. Our review from that memorable night commented that "we were looking forward to seeing that acoustic support guy again in Putney in May", and indeed here we were tonight as promised!

Kicking off the ninety minute set as he did in Camden with his (almost) namesake John Martyn OBE's 'Discover The Lover', this was followed by two originals, "a new one" as Dom described it, namely the intense, and as yet unreleased 'Haunted', and then the much slower and very beautiful, 'Echoes', originally the second single from 2022's 'A Savage Life'. The initial intimacy of this acoustic opening, as well as Belfast's finest's banter with an absorbed crowd, continued, despite his old mucker and bassist Ben Graham now joining him on stage.

Cue one of the many highlights from Dingwalls and Pink Floyd's 'Breathe'. Simply breathtaking. Martin's awesome vocal on the strutting '12 Gauge', the first single released from 'A Savage Life', demonstrated, if you needed it, that Dom well and truly is the complete package, as did his cover of Ray Lamontagne's quieter 'Jolene', that saw the versatile Ben now on keys.

The delightful title track from his 'Easy Way Out' EP was followed by Martin's amusing, jaw dropping, but at the same time, sad introduction to 'Hell For You', dedicated to "psychopaths everywhere", which saw this spine tingling slower Blues epic with a Flamenco twist, taken from 2019's 'Spain to Italy', seamlessly morph into the equally glorious 'Mercy' from 2018's 'Easy Way Out', complemented once again by Graham on keys.

His latest album, 'Buried In The Hail', finally came up for air with the Cajun feel/slide of its second single, 'Daylight I Will Find', which was followed by the shades wearing Ben joining him again on keys on Ralph McTell's classic, 'Last Train And Ride', that Dom poignantly introduced, recalling a life changing Belfast gig, going to see McTell with his Dad.

It's easy to see the comparisons between Martin and his late great fellow countryman Rory Gallagher, as showcased on his cover of Rory's foot tappin' 'Banker's Blues', and of course talking of Northern Ireland, you can take the boy out of Belfast, but you can't take Belfast out of the boy, as he followed it up with his third single from 'Buried In The Hail', and his "badge of honour" as he called it, weaving a spell with his fingers on the magical 'Belfast Blues'.

Despite being on Dom's setlist, which this very likeable artist kindly gave me at the end of the show, I didn't detect 'Luca' nor 'Dealer' during the evening (correct me if I'm wrong - it has been known!), but this dynamic duo, now sporting electric and bass guitars, sent a very happy Half Moon audience packing into the night with a classic encore of Gallagher's 'Should've Learned My Lesson'.

Tonight was an object lesson that less can be more. Indeed, if you're going to see Robin Trower this coming Wednesday, you will have the pleasure of finding out, as Dom is supporting Robin at London's Shepherd''s Bush Empire. If not, make sure you catch Martin's next co-headline tour with Blue Nation in November.

Review and Photos: AJ