Cleveland Hills is a tune from back in the good old 'Newkirk & Bell' days when Deanne Newkirk and I took our brand of acoustic guitar music and harmony vocals from Victoria B.C. to Ottawa Ontario, to Bluegrass and Folk festivals in Washington State, Wyoming, Minnesota and North Dakota, to name a few. We also did four tours of the U.K. playing at Folk Clubs, Bluegrass and Folk festivals. During those tours we played several gigs in the county of Cleveland performing at the Redcar Folk Festival, The Stockton Folk Club and the Marske Country Music Club. The inspiration for writing the tune was on one of those tours, the Cleveland Hills are a pretty range of hills that run parallel to the coast. Check out Bob Evans recording of Cleveland Hills on his CD 'Caffeinated Coffee'
One day it struck me that of all the things in my home my Martin guitar had been around longer than most of them and had seen and heard everything that had happened to me up to that time. The guitar in question is a 1970 Martin D28 that I bought second hand in 1973. I suppose that 'Martin Box' is really a love song to a guitar, a 1970 Martin D28 guitar with 'Rosewood Back and Sides"