Gregg Martinez is an American rhythm and blues singer and purveyor of the South Louisiana genre called Swamp Pop. He is also referred to as “Mac Daddy” and is a member of the Louisiana Music Hall of Fame. His vocal style has been inspired and influenced by the soul crooners of the 60’s/70’s including: Sam Cooke, Marvin Gaye, Al Green, and Louisiana artists G G Shinn, T K Hulin, Big Luther Kent and Johnny Adams. He is the leader of and tours regularly with Gregg Martinez and the Delta Kings.
Martinez began singing in public at the age of eight in his home church in Carencro, Louisiana. He began his professional music career after graduating from Teurlings Catholic High School in Lafayette, Louisiana in 1974 by performing in the local nightlife scene of South Louisiana.
From 1981 through 1984, Martinez was frontman and bandleader of Gregg Martinez and Kingfish. In 1985, he began to tour nationally with a new backing group called the Heat. Within a few months, he landed an exclusive contract with the Donald Trump casinos in Atlantic City, NJ, where he would appear regularly through 1988. Gregg relocated to the area in 1986.
In 1990 Martinez began a new chapter in his musical journey in the Contemporary Christian Music field. He released three Christian albums from 1991-1997. With the releases of For the Ages and All the Days, 1999, 2001, he began to blend the Christian music with the Rhythm and Blues of his earlier days. He formed Gregg Martinez Outreach in 1998 which most notably consisted of a public school anti-drug program which reached many thousands of students around the country.
By 2006, Martinez had relocated back to his native Louisiana and had also returned to the R&B/Blues/Swamp Pop genre with the release of Big Bad Daddy. At this time, he also joined the legendary blue-eyed soul group, The Boogie Kings. He wrote the title song for The Boogie Kings’ 2007 release, Never Go Away. Martinez’ CD, Soul of the Bayou, was released April 30, 2016 on Louisiana Red Hot Records. It reached #2 on the national soul chart and #4 on the national R&B chart. It was also voted #8 on the top 50 albums list in Louisiana for 2016 by Offbeat Magazine. Martinez has been nominated five times for Best Male Vocalist by Offbeat’s Best of the Beat Awards. On February 9, 2019 he was inducted into the Louisiana Music Hall of Fame.
MacDaddy Mojeaux, Gregg’s latest release and first on his new label, Nola Blue Records, is now available (https://www.greggmartinez.com/music).
FUTURE PLANS:
Well it’s kinda hard to say what the plans are for the future when we have no idea what the future is, but here goes nothing!
Before the shutdown, we had quite a few high profile festivals and events on the schedule which were all cancelled. However, when these events come around again, we will be a part of them. The main plan for the future is to capitalize on the success of the new album Mac Daddy Mojeaux by hitting the ground running when it is safe for people to congregate together and enjoy live music. This is still a ways off since our business is based on crowds. The CD is receiving such rave reviews and receiving so much airplay (#1 on charts!), the plan is to enlarge our territory and increase demand during the downtime so that when it opens up again people will be clamoring for our music.
The band and I are at the point in our lives where we now have the freedom and desire to expand horizons and be a larger part of the national and international blues scene. Kids are raised, nests empty and all that stuff. It certainly will be interesting to see how the new normal will be for live music events.
