Martin’s comments on “Some Girls”:

“Some Girls was written solely as an exercise in pop songwriting. It isn’t a song that I have any emotional attachment to, which isn’t to say that I don’t like it. I wrote it with a female singer in mind, so the original title was ‘Some Boys’ and the lyrics were written from a female point of view.  I decided to give it a couple of passes during early tracking hoping to get a rough demo out of it.

The initial take with Scott, Nick and Kevin had a very cool, loose feel to it. I especially liked the way the song opened up during the solo section. After Lloyd Maines and Bukka Allen added their tracks, I  decided to spend 20 minutes tweaking the lyrics so I would have a passable version from a male point of view. Once  everything was done, we all decided that it was a nice enough pop song to include on the CD. At that point we were definitely looking for something lighter to break things up.”

How about this nice new website? As you may have guessed, Martin did not design or build this one. Our sincere thanks to Colin, Kim, Allison, and all of the talented people at DKS Systems for putting this together.

A couple of things about the site:

Most of Martin’s music is available for purchase – as both digital downloads and physical CDs – directly through this site, including several titles that can be found exclusively here. We’ve made sure that our single-song and full CD downloads are cheaper than you’ll find anywhere else (legally) on the internet, and you can listen to any song in its entirety before deciding to purchase it.

Your purchases from the site are protected by the same state-of-the-art encryption technology used by major e-tailers, and we promise not to gouge you on the back-end with inflated shipping fees.

Our full online store should be up-and-running soon, so please check back.

On the homepage you can sign up for Martin’s new mailing list and newsletter. It’s the best way to stay current on what’s happening, and you’ll be automatically entered into exclusive contests and giveaways. The list is professionally managed and secure. You’re information will never be shared or sold to third parties. We also promise to not take advantage of your loyalty with excessive e-mails.

For those of you who signed up for the old mailing list (managed by ReverbNation, with whom we have no formal relationship) we recommend that you unsubscribe and add yourself to the official mailing list.

You can also stay current on events through Martin’s Facebook page or by subscribing to his Twitter feed. Links to both can be found on the site.

You can find the lyrics to all of Martin’s songs here. Just click “music” on the homepage, then “singles” You can then move through the list alphabetically to find the song you’re looking for. You can also find a song’s lyrics by clicking the ‘more info’ link located next to it on an album page.

The news section on the site will deliver a combination of straight news and blog-like entries from Martin. Any entry from Martin will be “signed” with MZ. Here’s what Martin has to say about it:

   “I always undertake projects like this with the best of intentions. My track record on following through has not been good. Not good at all. Things have changed. The whip has been cracked. I’m shaking off the dust and getting back to business. I can now all but promise you that I’ll do my best to attempt to get in the habit of trying to post on a semi-regular basis. This time I mean it.”

The shows section is fairly self-explanatory. Whenever possible, we provided a link to purchase  advance tickets. We strongly encourage you to call the venue, or visit their website for details on the show. We’ve learned from experience that the information on our contract often doesn’t match what a venue is advertising.

To celebrate the “grand opening” of the new website, we’re holding a drawing to win a free house concert with Martin. To enter, simply sign up for the mailing list (located at the bottom of the homepage) on or before Monday, February 13th, 2012. The winners names will be chosen randomly and announced on Tuesday, February 14th, 2012 (check out the details and fine print below). The first runner up will win a complete set of Martin’s releases dating back to the Gear Daddies debut “She’s Happy” 45. The second runner up will win a DVD copy of the side-splitting 1989 Warner Brothers release, Harry and the Hendersons.*

* This is an assumption based solely on the cover. We have never actually seen the film

House concert contest rules and details:

❖ Martin’s agent will work with the winner to come up with a mutually agreeable date for the event

❖ performance will consist of one 75 minute solo acoustic, un-amplified set

❖ Because of the unplugged format, attendance must be limited to no more than 50 people

❖ The performance must be private, unadvertised, un-ticketed, and free of charge for all attendees

❖ Hosts must be 21 years of age or older (proof of age will be required)

❖ The performance must be held in a home, or mutually acceptable private venue

❖The performance must end no later than 9:00 PM

❖ The performance must take place within the 50 U.S. states or Canada. Our apologies to fans outside of these areas

❖ The winner will be required to sign a contract that binds them to all of the above guidelines and releases Martin from any and all liability that might result from the event.

How the winner will be chosen:

❖ All names (with valid e-mail addresses) added to the mailing list by 11:59 PM CST on Monday February 13th, 2012 will be entered into the drawing

❖ Each name on the mailing list will be assigned a number based on the order of which it was added to the list. On Tuesday February 14th, 2012, a number will be chosen using a publicly  available random number generator (http://www.randomizer.org/form.htm) The name associated with that number will be the winner.

Martin, his band members, and members of their families, will not be eligible to win.

Runner-up prize includes:

Gear Daddies “She’s Happy b/w 2-18″ 45 rpm record  ❖  Gear Daddies Let’s Go Scare Al CD ❖ Gear Daddies Billy’s Live Bait CD ❖ Gear Daddies Can’t Have Nothin’ Nice CD ❖  Gear Daddies limited edition “Little Red Corvette b/w “White Sport Coat” “The Rose” 45 rpm record ❖  Born Under CD ❖  Martin Zellar & the Hardways (dice) CD ❖  Many Moods of Martin Zellar & The Hardways CD ❖  2 Guitars, Bass & Drums CD ❖ They Even Use the Hooves CD ❖ Live from the Mercury Lounge CD ❖ Scattered CD ❖ Martin Lee Zellar limited edition CD ❖ Roosters Crow CD

Second runner-up prize includes:

A DVD copy of the side-splitting 1989 Warner Brothers release, Harry and the Hendersons

About six years ago my family and I moved to San Miguel de Allende, a colonial city located in the Bajio mountains of Central Mexico. It’s old (founded in 1541), historic (a UNESCO world heritage site), and known for its arts scene.

San Miguel has a population of around 140,000, a fairly large expat community (not many our age), great restaurants, a great library, high speed (allegedly) Internet, and the weather is close to perfect (heating and air conditioning systems are non-existent).

Here are some of the reasons that cumulatively led to our decision to give living here a try: a change of scenery, the adventure, the people, the food, the colors, the music, affordability, experiencing a different culture, the slower pace of life, learning a new language, and giving our kids a different perspective on the world.

My general restlessness also played a big part.

Some frequently asked questions:

Are you near a beach? Nope.

Is it dangerous? A qualified no. So far San Miguel has remained free from drug violence, but that can change quickly. Mexico is definitely a very dangerous place for those directly involved in the drug war. I wouldn’t join a cartel, the army, or a law enforcement agency. I also wouldn’t wander about in search of drugs. Like a lot of cities, as the economy has worsened, property crimes have risen. You need to take reasonable precautions to live or visit here.

Where do your kids go to school? A small, funky, very cool private school with kids from all over the world.

Are the hospitals good? We’ve had nothing but good experiences. We went through a difficult pregnancy and the birth of our daughter here.

Do you have the opportunity to watch poorly dubbed Jean-Claude Van Damme films on television most nights? Yes.

Do you miss being near your family and friends? Yes.

Mexico is far from a perfect place to live. The poverty is heartbreaking, corruption is out of control, environmental oversight is non-existent, and public services are often sketchy. Still, we’ve loved living here. When we made the move, I hadn’t planned on working and traveling so much. The surprise birth of our daughter changed everything.

We plan to move back to the U.S. at some point, and when we do, we’ll miss something about Mexico every day.

Martin’s 2-disc set of odds and ends, “They Even Use the Hooves” has been out of circulation for almost 8 years, but we recently found four cases in storage, and we’re selling off these remaining discs exclusively through the website store. Used copies of Hooves are currently going for $43 to $119 on Amazon.com. New copies start at  $99.99 and run to $288.  We’re selling them on the site for the original retail price of $20. No more copies of Hooves will be printed once these are gone.

Due to the complexity of licensing material for digital distribution, the physical edition of “They Even Use the Hooves” contains six cover tunes that are not included on its downloadable version.

They Even Use the Hooves… (odds & ends 1991-2003) Learn More