Samantha Martin & Delta Sugar

Samantha Martin was musically precocious, and as her mom blasted everything from Aretha Franklin to Sinead O’Connor through the living room stereo all that righteous singing went straight into a pair of very receptive ears.

Samantha released her first record in 2008, but it wasn’t until 2015 that this powerhouse vocalist hit her stride: with the newly-minted Samantha Martin & Delta Sugar focusing on retro-soul and southern blues and gospel, their debut CD, Send the Nightingale, garnered a notable four nominations at that year’s Maple Blues Awards (including Best Female Vocalist and Best New Group). More CDs followed, as did a further slew of nominations and awards, including a 2019 Juno nod.

At that point touring extensively in Europe, Samantha and her wrecking crew of a band wowed audiences at clubs, concert stages, and, later, major European festivals. By now boasting an expanded horn section and the swirling funk of a Hammond organ, Delta Sugar and its electrifying lead singer had absorbed and recast the sounds of everyone from Mavis Staples, Sharon Jones, and Otis Redding to Booker T. and the MG’s, Ann Peebles, and Sam & Dave.

The result was super-powered and occasionally raunchy soul that, as one reviewer put, made Delta Sugar “the modern incarnation of the sort of band you might have seen as part of a Stax touring revue in the ‘60s.” This is the sort of emotionally authentic and sweetly stunning music that leaves audiences gasping . . . then has them screaming for more.

Their newest CD, The Reckless One, has a garishly floral grenade on the cover that cleverly expresses the explosive beauty of this remarkably soulful yet revved up band.