Hello, my name is Riley Dean Martin. I write songs, sing songs, and play guitar. While we may share the same calendar and map, I’m from a different space and time. I was raised in the flat land of endless fields, vacant main streets, decrepit barns, confined cattle, and characters—torn from the pages of Steinbeck and Faulkner. 

They say to write what you know. I write what I know, and all that I know is what I’ve lived. There was a stark distinction between the slow pace of empty gray fields evolving into masses of corn year after year and the hard confrontation with loss and love—lessons most folks are apportioned throughout a lifetime. 

I taught myself to play guitar as an escape, or at least a distraction, from it all. While music provided a reprieve, the songs—the words and stories—gave me shelter and made my world a little less cold. From Cash to Cohen, Otis to Hank, The Band to Van Zandt, Big Thief to Little Feat, Isbell to Prine—these are but a few of the songwriters that let me know I wasn’t alone. No matter the storm or season, the songs always remained. That’s the power of a song and that’s the reason I chose, as if I had a choice, to write songs. 

From the blues to bluegrass, honky-tonk to Motown, shoegaze to post-punk, and Laurel Canyon to the Nashville Sound—my music is similarly inspired by the pace, places, people, songs, sounds, and echoes that raised me. 

I cut my teeth playing cover songs in northwest Ohio VFW halls, dusty bars, and small-town festivals. After taking a few years to hone my songwriting craft, working as an architectural designer, and becoming a husband, I’m back and ready to take the stage with my own songs and my story. Both music and design have been equally constructive and rewarding—they build me as much as I craft them. 

I reside on the west side of Cleveland with my wife, Shelby, and two massive dogs, Otis and Merle. 

I play solo and can hold a room for an hour-long set or a three-hour gig at listening rooms, wineries, breweries, and festivals across the region. I’m currently producing my first full-length album.