About 

Jake Martini is an American Singer / Songwriter finger style guitarist and entertainer. He is a solo act who forged his craft playing with the best musicians on Lower Broadway in Nashville, Tennessee. 

Early Life and Career

Martini was born in Eugene, Oregon, the son of Thomas Lesiak and British born Cathy Martini. He learned his early guitar style from Cathy, citing Ralph McTell’s “Streets of London” as one of his first inspirations. Martini knew he wanted to be a musician from a young age but took a circuitous route to make it his full time job. He played in garage bands and a folk duo with Wes Curtis called Martini and James, and then a rock band called Beatrootand that toured up and down the i5 corridor. He graduated University of Oregon  in 2011 with B.A. in French Literature and moved to Massachusetts and did some touring of the East Coast with Beatrootband, opening for troubadour John Craigie once in Northampton. He moved back to Oregon and was “kind of in a rut for a few years,” partying and living in a barn on his dads sixteen acre farm. In 2015 he got sober and in 2017 started putting out albums under his name. In 2018, Martini moved to Nashville, Tennessee to “really give this music a shot.” 

In 2019 he got the opportunity to tour with Glen Templeton, a Tuscaloosa born country singer who has long drawn comparison to Conway Twitty. Martini sometimes opened the show acoustically, “greasing the skillet” for the headliner, and mostly he sold merchandise and learned how to live on the road and “read a lot of books in my bunk.”

In 2020 along with private shows with Templeton, Martini started playing on Nashville’s Lower Broadway at establishments like Tootsies, Honky Tonk Central, Rippey’s and Losers. From 2020-2022 Martini played over 400 shows, mostly fronting the Ken Taylor band at Honky Tonk Central.

Style 

Although his albums and his live performances span many different styles-from folk, country and psychedelic  rock- he is most commonly affiliated with roots music. Martini has toured extensively in the US throughout his career.