Josh Martin, accompanied by some of Nashville’s best and brightest, is gracing the Crooked Tree Arts Center stage in Petoskey on August 2. Dive in to learn more about Josh and his fleet from Tom Petzold with L’Arbre Croche Realty.

Tell us why you’re excited about this event.
We are excited about Josh Martin because he is an authentic artist who made the bold decision in 2018 to go independent and retain artistic control (parting ways from Sony Music). His 2019 album, Nothing Holding Me, is a deeply personal expression of his home in coal-mining Eastern Kentucky.

Josh is a complete artist—with all aspects mastered—guitar, vocals, and songwriting. It is rare to find artists that have mastered all three of these talents. He clearly has earned a great reputation within the Nashville music industry evidenced by the exceptional talent he has pulled together for his band. It is going to be incredible to get all this talent together on one stage. A lot of effort is going into making this possible including flying fiddle player Jenee Fleenor across the country from her show two nights prior as part of Blake Shelton’s band.

Josh visited Northern Michigan for the first time in his life in 2020 as a solo act performing private shows. He was so taken by the beauty of the area and the friendships he made that he committed to returning, this time with a full band.

How does your organization’s/Crooked Tree’s mission connect with this event?
The organizer’s mission is to generate audiences for independent musicians. It started out as a way to entertain the members of the L’Arbre Croche Association but when the act is this good the decision was made to create a public show to share with the broader community. The partnership with Crooked Tree Arts Center makes this possible. 100% of ticket proceeds go to the musicians. In addition, there is a charitable aspect of this show, as a couple of anonymous donors have committed to making gifts to the McLaren Northern Michigan Foundation in proportion to the number of tickets sold, benefitting both artists and the mission of the Foundation.

Photo(s) by Josh Martin