Idol Chatter & Voice Views

His audition: Marty O’Reilly, 36, Sonoma, Calif., performed “Trouble” by Ray LaMontagne. Marty displayed a great singer-songwriter voice and a nice rasp. But he was well into the song before anyone turned. Then Niall Horan, Michael Buble and Snoop Dogg did so in rapid fashion. Niall loved the rasp and character in this voice. Michael loved his character voice as well and put Niall into a penalty box to keep him from speaking more. The ploy might have worked. Marty decided to join Team Michael.

Here’s more about Marty:

* He’s a 35-year-old Americana singer-songwriter from Sonoma, Calif..

* In his Spotify bio, Marty says his influences include folk greats like Woody Guthrie, blues legends like Howlin’ Wolf, gospel pioneers like Sister Rosetta Thorpe, and master storytellers like Tom Waits.

* Marty has lots of music out, including two songs released this year — “Not Like This” and “Something I Can Feel.” The latter is about the impact of dreams and you can check out the lyric video below.

* He also has an album on the way called “The Rhinefarm.” He started writing songs for the album during the pandemic and is releasing it with the help of a Kickstarter campaign that raised more than $38,000 in just over a month earlier this year.

* Marty explains that one of the reasons it took so long to complete is that he and his wife had their son Miles in September of 2021 He said he needed to be a responsible dad and not disappear in the studio for weeks on end.

* So he tracked the songs at a friend’s studio in Sonoma and worked on the album as time permitted. Though he’s been a career musician, it will mark he first solo album.

* “The Rhinefarm” is one of the songs on the album, a song he write to help a local winery celebrate its history.

* Marty has been recording and performing music for quite a while. He previously released three albums as Marty O’Reilly and the Old Soul Orchestra — “Pray for Rain” in 2014, “Stereoscope” in 2018 and “Signal Fires” in 2021. Old Soul Orchestra formed in 2012 and disbanded in 2022.

* Marty has said he started performing music in his teens after his parents bought his a guitar for Christmas. His father helped shape his musical influences; one of his dad’s favorite artists was blues legend John Lee Hooker.

* Marty took to social media earlier this week with a heartfelt post encouraging fans to support all the artists on The Voice. “The show is a fascinating big world that is pretty far from my own little planet,” he writes. “But I decided to take a shot at the moon and I’m so glad I did.”

Marty on social media:
Instagram
TikTok
Facebook
YouTube