Martin's Music Lives On!  

Now Available on all streaming services, 

plus a NEW RELEASE!

Lowlights Publishing LLC has purchased publishing rights to several of your favorite albums!

Rex Strother, owner of Lowlights Publishing in Salt Lake City, Utah, made sure that all of Martin's work was registered correctly with ASCAP and BMI so your favorite streaming platforms can now play your very own Martin Swinger concerts.  If you've seem Martin perform more than once, you'll feel as if he's right there in front on stage, winking at you while he sings.  You can liven up any road trip, walk in the park, or children's event with the magic of Martin by your side or in your ears.  

And, a ‘lost’ album, found and remastered for you: Singin' OUT! 

This homage to the LGBTQ+ experience was written and recorded back in 1994.  Things were different back than. Brian was present at statewide meetings where the statewide gay rights organization finally gave into the pressure to acknowledge the bisexuals in our community, especially those who worked hard to lobby and educate our legislature.  It does take a village. So just about then, the ‘B’ was added to the gay rights acronym.  In 1994, the statewide organization was still encouraging our trans brothers and sisters to either ‘dress appropriately or stay home’ so as to not present any impediment to securing equal protection and rights for the ‘regular LGB folks.  So the ’T' was not being served yet.  Some of us were already enjoying the reclamation of ‘queer’ as an identifier for ourselves and the expanding community, but it wasn't for a few years that LGBTQ would be rolling off our tongues.  Following shortly were other embellishments and additions to recognize our diversity, such as indigenous two-spirit identity and the ‘plus’ (+) that includes, as Martin would say, the whole famn damily including non-binary.  Though many don't see our allies as being part of our community, Martin would agree that so long as they stand with us and by us, they are putting themselves out there with courage and dignity and deserve to stand under the umbrella with us out of the rain.  By 1994,  Martin was already being asked to volunteer to perform at fundraisers for LGBTQ+ equality, and Brian encouraged Martin to compile an album of queer-themed music, much of which had been written and tucked away at a time when representation was rare and mattered even more than it does today. This album, Singin' OUT!, secured a new place for Martin among other out singer/songwriters who were giving hope, healing, and inspiration. The anthem, “Give Us Our Own” is as relevant in 2026 as it was in 1994, and Martin performed that in Portland's famous Merrill Auditorium accompanied by the Maine Gay Men's Chorus.  We also enjoyed being asked to be the opening act for Lea Delaria at one holiday gala performing a special version of ‘The 12 Days of Christmas.’ 

In addition to using his music to foster change (Martin's middle name was Foster, did you know that?) he also used his training in event catering to create attitude-changing events.  We had been told about a lobbying tradition in Maine, where special interest groups would offer ‘legislative breakfasts.'  These were opportunities to offer coffee and treats for all of Maine's elected officials and their Statehouse staff and offer the chance to speak about gay rights and answer any questions that they may have.  It never occured to us that this meant a plain tabletop  featuring some la thermos of coffee and boxes of doughnuts. We went to the woods and collected evergreen fronds and ferns upon which were various levels of treats, some prepared by PFLAG heros, others by local restaurants such as Wendy Larsen's Slates, in Hallowell.  In addition to the expected urn of coffee, we had a full selection of teas, pastries, breakfast rolls and treats, and light salads.  It looked like a Maine bar mitzvah in the famous Moose Room of the Maine Statehouse.  We also made sure there were plenty of nicely printed educational materials, along with pens imprinted with the name of the organization and the toll-free number I secured for it, to givef the impression that we had a physical office. People love free thngs, so they took them.  If they didn't like the message, they'd just set it down and it would be carried off to a new place, spreading our influence far and wide.  We did it once more the following year.  Many years later, each time Martin was asked to sing the Star Spangled Banner for the beginning of the legisative session, he'd be asked, “When are you doing the Moose Room breakfast again? We've all been talking about how lovely that was!”

We didn't do the legislative breakfasts again, because the legislature was now eating out of our hand.  Bwaahaha!  But the largest organized opposition to gay rights was ‘The Maine Christian Civic League,’ and they easily gathered enough signatures to put our equal rights and protections up for a statewide referendum. We knew what that meant.  We needed a bigger audience. Every year, one of Maine's most important, widely attended, and unique state fairs happened in the fall – The Common Ground Fair.  This celebration of organic farming and sustainable living drew people not just from Maine, but from all across New Englaond.  More than farmers attended – there were several tents in the ‘Social and Political Action’ areas that drew people of all ages looking to connect with progressive organizations, shop for audacious bumper stickers, and get free condoms.  We remembered the booth run by the statewide organization.  All of it.  The cardboard box of screen-printed t-shirts sitting in the mud, the folding chair someone sat in, and… oh, that was it.  Even though it was dark under the tent, we could see there was no t-shirt on display and the only printed materials were in a little stack on the metal folding chair.  Other gay people who wandered by looked the booth over and asked if we were in charge.  We told them we weren't, and realized this was an unclaimed opportunity for outreach, conversation, and education.  The following year we took over.  Brian collected used magazine and literature racks, and then printed a wide variety of educational materials addressing the most frequently asked questions about sexual orientation, gender identity, suicide and crime statistics, and contact information of resources offering variety of support. We had music, a video, a trivia game with prizes, holiday lights, and wooden planks to ensure access to the booth in the event of rain and mud, which were a part of every festival weekend. Probably the most impactful addition was the bubble machine.  Everyone wanted to find the source of the bubbles that wafted on the breeze across the entire fairground and parking lots. People who would never have gotten near the gay right booth were dragged there by their children, and the busloads of students who came each year herded their teachers, guidance counselors, and parent chaperones to us.  They thanked us profusely for offering the resources we provided that made their work easier and their communities safer. You wont find this information in the Jean Byers Sampson Center for Diversity Collection at the University of Southern Maine's Libary.  We only ran that booth two or three times – Martin became too busy with actually performing on the various entertainment stages at the CGF and had too many requests from other vendors and social justice exhibitors to do sing at their spots.  Brian realized he was allergic to all the organic stuff in the festival air and would be ill for a few weeks after volunteering, and then had to take a step back while fighting off a pesky cancer. ‘’'''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''

One last prong in Martin's work at educating and representing the queer community was through his cable TV musical varity show.  For nine years, Martin was the emcee and producer of ‘Alive From Johnson Hall.’  This show, recorded with the excitement of a live studio audience, featured Martin along with other Maine-based musical acts.  It brought people directly into the first floor performance space of a the historic but crumbling Johnson Hall Opera House on Water Street in Gardiner, Maine.  Funding for renovations to the space had been a dream of the community for years, and Martin's show brought people right into the charming old space and the local cable network reached every corner and just about every home in the entire State of Maine.  Brian raised money to purchase sponsor space to display the statewide gay rights organization information along the back of the stage wall.  Even after Martin stopped producing the show, it ran for years in reruns!  You can probably find some of these old treasures on YouTube and Facebook