Martin Marron, armed only with an acoustic guitar, a "safety blanket" book of several hundred Irish tunes and a comedic wit, has been winning fans over since 1986.  Along with singing Irish standards like The Wild Rover and Whiskey In The Jar with some classic ballads thrown in, Martin may be better known for his bawdy Sing-A-Longs, and his audience-participation songs.  Music and jokes aside, Martin's trademark may be the one word he uses to end all of his songs: "T'anks!"  Thanks, that is.  Born in Chicago, raised in Co. Sligo, Ireland, he moved back to Chicago in 1982.  Three years later he joined the long established folk group The Irish Minstrels, and later went on to play with the likes of Denis Allen, Martin Hayes, and others. Martin played bass guitar with The Dublin City Ramblers during their 1988 U.S. tour and was also a founding member of Stephen's Green.  Since then, Martin has played from "Boolya to Ballymagash" and back again and has thrice played as support for The Saw Doctors.  Now living in Virginia Beach, Martin plays at Mo & O'Malley's Irish Pub in Norfolk on a regular basis, which has necessitated the bar's expansion in January of 2004.

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	"The first time The Saw Doctors managed to make it to Norfolk, VA was February of 2002.  Now, when you first play in a town, you don't expect that big of a crowd - it takes building.  But we were told  that several hundred tickets had been sold for the NorVa. Sure enough, Martin was opening the show and that was immediately apparent.  He had the audience in the palms of his hands, worked up to a frenzy, as he obviously must do on a regular basis around the venues of Norfolk and beyond.  He joined us later on for a rockin' version of 'Joyce Country Céili Band' and proved himself to be a 'sham' of the highest order.  I thought it was a great steam!"
	Leo Moran