Ahead of his UK tour, Joe Martin is releasing a further single from his upcoming album "Empty Passanger Seat" in the shape of "Crocodile Tears" and it only once more cements his place firmly as one of the UK's top troubadours.
Each of Joe's releases are lyrically crafted, there is always likely to be a moment where you have to stand back and admire his work
"She'll lecture me on how to live my life
Then stab me with that "moral-high-ground-knife"
To watch me bleed with a hypocritical smile"
is not the sort of eloquence you come to expect in any three minute song.
The song finds Joe in a quandary - he would see his needs as relatively simple
"I don't need too much in a woman - just someone who cares to love me - like they should do
Oh I need her in my arms, instead I find myself alone and lately I've been talking to her answerphone"
yet the object of those affections is less than ideal.
"Oh her high maintenance keeps wearing me down
And her lies, about who she's seeing around this town
Causes me to wonder why, I ain't already said "goodbye"
and keep falling for those Crocodile Tears she cries"
It is that dilemma that drives the song - the internal battle between knowing you are being mistreated and abused and hating feeling that way, against the stark reality of having no-one at all - and so even when he does protest - it is done with the knowedge that he will once again cave, if she starts to cry.
"Oh let me tell you something baby
I ain't standing for the way you been treating me lately
Oh her eye are staring into someone elses now
and she tries to deny it when I ask her"
Musically this is pure Americana, a solid drum beat joins Joe's acoustic guitar however it is CJ Hillman's pedal steel that is loudest and proudest at the front of the mix that drives and really rocks this tune.
