Album Review: In Search [Reissue] by Chance

Through the 1970s, Chance Martin had the sort of connections in Nashville that most aspiring rhinestone cowboys would kill for. He was Johnny Cash’s most trusted stagehand, a drinking buddy of Tanya Tucker, and he served as a sound engineer for director Robert Altman’s Oscar-nominated Music City masterpiece. And when, toward the end of the decade, Chance decided to make the leap from being an assistant to the stars to becoming one himself, he had no less a Nashville legend than “Cowboy” Jack Clement behind the boards.

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Lifelong Nashville musician Chance Martin was good friends with Johnny Cash, but that’s about as much as you can tie him to something resembling popularity. Martin grew sturdy and strong out of the clay of the Strange South, and his lost gem, 1981’s In Search, is now reissued for the first time by Paradise of Bachelors. Despite the sounds that may come to mind when I mention Nashville musician or Johnny Cash, forget what you think you can assume about Chance.

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Nashville fringe music characters don’t come much more colorful or legendary than Chance Martin. Just a glance at his aliases such as Alamo Jones, the Voice in Black and the Stoned Ranger shows that this is no traditional singer/songwriter. The first re-issue of Chance’s only album — five years in the making, initially “private pressed” in 1981, and long out of print– comes with a 13,000 word bio on the man and his history.

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Since the dawn of the CD era, a cottage industry has emerged around "holy grail" or "lost" recordings. More often than not, the music doesn't live up to the hype. But In Search, the privately pressed album by songwriter, conceptualist, trickster, and genuine Nashville character Chance Martin, is not only the authentic article, it is virtually unlike any record ever made.

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