July 25, 2025 • 5 mins
The fifth studio album from British singer-songwriter Billie Marten, ‘Dog Eared’ is an album filled with nostalgia.
The title comes from the practice of dog earring books, Marten having a fondness for marking up the books she reads – underlining passages, scribbling ideas in margins, and folding corners.
It tells the story of who she was as she wrote and recorded the album, each song touching on a different childhood memory.
Estelle Clifford joined Jack Tame to give her thoughts on the release.
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Speaker 1 (00:07):
You're listening to the Saturday Morning with Jack Team podcast
from News Talks at b.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
This is Feeling. It's a song by Billy Martin. He's
got a brand new album called dog Ed, and our
music reviewer Estelle Clifford has been listening. She's with us
this morning.
Speaker 3 (00:45):
Hey, oh Kyowder, Yeah, Billy Martin, what a great listen.
So the dog Eared thing, I found out why she
kind of rolled with that. She's someone who turns over
the corners of books of pages to mark her place
doing that dog ed thing, which if you've ever borrowed
a book from the library, you have to like really
refrain from trying to make yourself self do. But I
(01:05):
love that it's a real book. She's a real wordsmith,
and she journals and always has a notebook with her.
And that song there, feeling, you can kind of get
that sense of a change of tide, like a sort
of rolling sort of sound, and it is a change
of tide for her in respects to how she's done
this album so predominantly has had that folky girl guitar
(01:26):
soloist kind of thing going on where making this album
she had like an open door policy and you'll hear
it in some of the songs, there's almost a jam
session sound about it. Yeah, so other musicians came in
and joined her. The guitar got plugged in, so she's
gone electric and there's a more full sound about it.
(01:48):
There's more layering in that song. There. There's like the
pedal steel guitar, which just has such a cool sound
to it. There's trumpets and sometimes sometimes I get confused,
you know, when you hear a muted trumpet sound and
then you're like, but is it also like a slide guitar.
Speaker 2 (02:07):
I don't know.
Speaker 3 (02:07):
There's kind of like that kind of clever sound and
hates a really cool percussion. So on Instagram, if you
get a chance to look at Billy Martin, there she's
got some of the studio sessions showing off the recording
of the percussion. And there's like these big they look
like fire when people go out and do street performing.
They've got those big fire poles, but it's got like
(02:27):
the shakers on the end of it to get this
really big sound. There's these like wooden blocks that are
all set up in horseshoes and they're tapping it and
making all So what I love about seeing that kind
of thing is that. Then you listen to the music
again and you're like, oh, yeah, I can hear that now,
like all these really cool, very interesting, sometimes eclectic sort
of sounds that can come in amongst her really folky,
(02:51):
cool guitar kind of sound that she's going on. This
album to me sounds very confident, like she's kind of
set herself. She's shaking off that feel of childhood and
youth and she's really moving forward into her adulthood. This
is someone who's pretty much writing music and releasing music
such as fourteen. Yeah, so it's been over a decade,
(03:12):
do you know?
Speaker 2 (03:12):
For me so I she kind of the voice reminds
me a little bit of Laura Marling. She does have
that kind of and you know, given she was doing
a lot of sing a songwriter stuff, kind of like yes, folky,
you know, you can kind of see.
Speaker 3 (03:28):
That tonal quality and then that real it's quite a confident,
grounded sort of voice. Yeah, And I always think it's
amazing to have established that so young in your career
and the music that you're making that she's really found that.
You're right, it is quite similar to that. And then
if you want to go back even further, you know,
when like if you hear someone like Shania Twain just
(03:48):
through some of her acoustics stuff, they have that similar
kind of quality and sound in their voices again where
they've just had to really if you've just got your
guitar in your voice, you kind of really have to
hone those skills right in that draft and it brings
that real warmness. Yeah, there's this real warm tonal quality.
There's a couple of songs where she kind of does
(04:08):
that weird like it's off key or kind of like
that minor key sound and amongst these quirky little percussiony bits,
and it's really clever and just such a super easy
listen the entire album. It's kind of chill and quiet
at times, she's not forcing anything out. It's just flowing
so nice. But it's also an album you could crank
(04:31):
up and fill the whole house Swiss, and I kind
of like that, like you could really absorb yourself and
sink into what she's doing. And I think the big
credit there is just that she does have such a
wonderful voice, so whatever else is going on around that,
you really do fall into her voice quite easy. If
you really want to get a sense of the full
jam session sound. The end track is called swing Okay,
(04:55):
and it really is. It's a great way to end
the album. It sounds like everyone's just come along with
whatever they're found in their boots and they're like, let's
all just put some layers and interesting stuff to this.
And I really I love that sound. I think that's
a really cool thing for her to be, like, I
want to do something.
Speaker 2 (05:11):
A little bit different. Yeah, it might also make.
Speaker 3 (05:13):
You want to go back into her back catalog and
listen to some of her more folky kind of stuff.
And yeah, I think this. I've just really and I've
really loved this album. I like pretty much every song.
Speaker 2 (05:23):
I can't kind of like, yeah, I mean it sounds great.
I'm looking forward to having to listen to it because
of what I this morning. It sounds fantastic. So doggyed
by Billy Martin, what'd you give it? I'm going there
again and here we go. Love that to me? You
no great note, it's just no one with that. It's good.
We love a bit of positivity on a Saturday morning. Yeah, okay,
you'll enjoy it. We'll pick out a good track to
(05:44):
play in a couple of minutes thanks to Stelle catching
him very soon. A Stelle Clifford Our music reviewer ten
out of ten she Reckons doggyed by Billy Martin is
worth for.
Speaker 1 (05:53):
More from Saturday Morning with Jack Tame. Listen live to
news talks it'd be from nine am Saturday, or follow
the podcast on iHeartRadio
You're listening to the Saturday Morning with Jack Team podcast
from News Talks at b.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
This is Feeling. It's a song by Billy Martin. He's
got a brand new album called dog Ed, and our
music reviewer Estelle Clifford has been listening. She's with us
this morning.
Speaker 3 (00:45):
Hey, oh Kyowder, Yeah, Billy Martin, what a great listen.
So the dog Eared thing, I found out why she
kind of rolled with that. She's someone who turns over
the corners of books of pages to mark her place
doing that dog ed thing, which if you've ever borrowed
a book from the library, you have to like really
refrain from trying to make yourself self do. But I
(01:05):
love that it's a real book. She's a real wordsmith,
and she journals and always has a notebook with her.
And that song there, feeling, you can kind of get
that sense of a change of tide, like a sort
of rolling sort of sound, and it is a change
of tide for her in respects to how she's done
this album so predominantly has had that folky girl guitar
(01:26):
soloist kind of thing going on where making this album
she had like an open door policy and you'll hear
it in some of the songs, there's almost a jam
session sound about it. Yeah, so other musicians came in
and joined her. The guitar got plugged in, so she's
gone electric and there's a more full sound about it.
(01:48):
There's more layering in that song. There. There's like the
pedal steel guitar, which just has such a cool sound
to it. There's trumpets and sometimes sometimes I get confused,
you know, when you hear a muted trumpet sound and
then you're like, but is it also like a slide guitar.
Speaker 2 (02:07):
I don't know.
Speaker 3 (02:07):
There's kind of like that kind of clever sound and
hates a really cool percussion. So on Instagram, if you
get a chance to look at Billy Martin, there she's
got some of the studio sessions showing off the recording
of the percussion. And there's like these big they look
like fire when people go out and do street performing.
They've got those big fire poles, but it's got like
(02:27):
the shakers on the end of it to get this
really big sound. There's these like wooden blocks that are
all set up in horseshoes and they're tapping it and
making all So what I love about seeing that kind
of thing is that. Then you listen to the music
again and you're like, oh, yeah, I can hear that now,
like all these really cool, very interesting, sometimes eclectic sort
of sounds that can come in amongst her really folky,
(02:51):
cool guitar kind of sound that she's going on. This
album to me sounds very confident, like she's kind of
set herself. She's shaking off that feel of childhood and
youth and she's really moving forward into her adulthood. This
is someone who's pretty much writing music and releasing music
such as fourteen. Yeah, so it's been over a decade,
(03:12):
do you know?
Speaker 2 (03:12):
For me so I she kind of the voice reminds
me a little bit of Laura Marling. She does have
that kind of and you know, given she was doing
a lot of sing a songwriter stuff, kind of like yes, folky,
you know, you can kind of see.
Speaker 3 (03:28):
That tonal quality and then that real it's quite a confident,
grounded sort of voice. Yeah, And I always think it's
amazing to have established that so young in your career
and the music that you're making that she's really found that.
You're right, it is quite similar to that. And then
if you want to go back even further, you know,
when like if you hear someone like Shania Twain just
(03:48):
through some of her acoustics stuff, they have that similar
kind of quality and sound in their voices again where
they've just had to really if you've just got your
guitar in your voice, you kind of really have to
hone those skills right in that draft and it brings
that real warmness. Yeah, there's this real warm tonal quality.
There's a couple of songs where she kind of does
(04:08):
that weird like it's off key or kind of like
that minor key sound and amongst these quirky little percussiony bits,
and it's really clever and just such a super easy
listen the entire album. It's kind of chill and quiet
at times, she's not forcing anything out. It's just flowing
so nice. But it's also an album you could crank
(04:31):
up and fill the whole house Swiss, and I kind
of like that, like you could really absorb yourself and
sink into what she's doing. And I think the big
credit there is just that she does have such a
wonderful voice, so whatever else is going on around that,
you really do fall into her voice quite easy. If
you really want to get a sense of the full
jam session sound. The end track is called swing Okay,
(04:55):
and it really is. It's a great way to end
the album. It sounds like everyone's just come along with
whatever they're found in their boots and they're like, let's
all just put some layers and interesting stuff to this.
And I really I love that sound. I think that's
a really cool thing for her to be, like, I
want to do something.
Speaker 2 (05:11):
A little bit different. Yeah, it might also make.
Speaker 3 (05:13):
You want to go back into her back catalog and
listen to some of her more folky kind of stuff.
And yeah, I think this. I've just really and I've
really loved this album. I like pretty much every song.
Speaker 2 (05:23):
I can't kind of like, yeah, I mean it sounds great.
I'm looking forward to having to listen to it because
of what I this morning. It sounds fantastic. So doggyed
by Billy Martin, what'd you give it? I'm going there
again and here we go. Love that to me? You
no great note, it's just no one with that. It's good.
We love a bit of positivity on a Saturday morning. Yeah, okay,
you'll enjoy it. We'll pick out a good track to
(05:44):
play in a couple of minutes thanks to Stelle catching
him very soon. A Stelle Clifford Our music reviewer ten
out of ten she Reckons doggyed by Billy Martin is
worth for.
Speaker 1 (05:53):
More from Saturday Morning with Jack Tame. Listen live to
news talks it'd be from nine am Saturday, or follow
the podcast on iHeartRadio
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