Jeff Martell, popular musician with roots in Northampton and Greenfield, dies in West Springfield car crash

NORTHAMPTON — A folk singer who was a key organizer of the Green River Festival was remembered this weekend by friends and family as big-hearted, hard-working and a linchpin of the Valley music scene.



Jeff Martell was killed Friday in a head-on collision on Route 20 in West Springfield while driving to a gig in New York.



Martell, 50, of Northampton was one of two drivers killed in the crash around 5 p.m. Friday, West Springfield Police Sgt. Hubert Rees said. Benjamin Stulpin, 24, of Springfield was also killed.



Rees said two other cars were also involved in the accident as they tried to avoid the collision, but there were no other reported injuries. The cause of the crash, which occurred near Dewey Street, remained under investigation Sunday night.



“One car crossed the center line,” Rees said. “Right now that’s all we know.”



Martell was heading to The Backwater Grille in Canaan, New York, but did not arrive, prompting his girlfriend, Jessica Lapinski, 49, of Florence to start making calls and look for him. She said she was told by police he had died in the crash.



Born and bred in the Berkshires, Martell was a singer-songwriter who performed all across the Pioneer Valley and around New England. In his career, he did solo pub shows, using a guitar and harmonica, as well as playing with numerous bands.



He began playing guitar at age 5, recalled his son, 24-year-old Elijah Parker-Martell of Allston, who said his father was a huge fan of performers including the Grateful Dead and Bob Dylan.



“He used to love to play wherever he was, even at home,” Parker-Martell said. “He was so at home here, he never wanted to go anywhere else. The Valley was the place he had always chosen.”



Parker-Martell said his dad was always laughing, and loved telling jokes about musicians. His wry sense of humor comes across on his website, where the About section begins: “One guy, one guitar, a bunch of harmonicas, a boatload of great songs, an orange cat, several Tibetan monks, a hamster, a power drill, an onion ... you know, that sort of thing ...”



Martell also had a spiritual side, and had recently begun practicing Kirtan, a kind of devotional yoga that involves call-and-response chanting. He was to sing Saturday night at Yoga Eastworks in Easthampton with Green River Yoga & Movement Director Libby Volckening.



Lapinksi said she introduced Martell to the local Kirtan scene and he immediately took to it, creating a “Western Mass Kirtan” Facebook group to link different people together, as he was known to do in many aspects of his life.



Martell was also very involved in the Alcoholics Anonymous community, Lapinski said, explaining that he had been sober for 25 years and traveled as a motivational speaker.



“He straddled all these different worlds,” Lapinski said, calling him a “wise, wise soul” and someone people came to for guidance. She said he had recently begun writing a self-help book.



Well known for his work on the Green River Festival in Greenfield, Martell worked behind the scenes managing the grounds and operations at the annual summer music event. Martell was the man organizers turned to when there was an issue, as he knew the festival “inside out,” said festival director Jim Olsen, 57, of Whately, who got to know Martell through the festival around 20 years ago.



“He was always the first one there and the last one to leave,” Olsen said, calling him a “big-hearted guy” with a “great spirit.”



Franklin County Chamber of Commerce President Ann Hamilton, a former colleague, said Martell could handle any situation with poise. “He was always cheerful, helpful and willing to work hard,” she said.



Greenfield Community College president Robert Pura, who knew Martell for 15 years through the Green River Festival and his work with the Chamber, described him as someone who remained calm and focused even in the most tense situations.



“He was the go-to guy that never got ruffled,” he said. “He was the guy that calmly walked through troubled waters, and he did that on many levels of his life.”



Martell was known, too, for his work at the Easthampton Country Dance and Song Society, where he was the store and group services manager. One recent mission had him searching for a special type of bells for Morris dancers, Lapinski recalled, noting that though they seemed unattainable, Martell found a company that made them and ordered a boatload.



“All the musicians in the Valley are devastated,” Lapinski said, explaining that many people were writing to share condolences.



Noel Prophet, 50, of Deerfield said though he was never close to Martell, the folk singer’s presence loomed large in his life. The two attended Taconic High School in Pittsfield together, where Prophet said Martell was already an inspiration.



“I can still see him in the lobby of our high school, guitar in hand, petition on table, and intention in his heart and mind as he pushed at our disinterested generation to be conscious,” Prophet wrote in an email.



Martell was born on Aug. 4, 1965 in Pittsfield, where he grew up. He attended Greenfield Community College and the University of Massachusetts Amherst.



In addition to his son and girlfriend, Martell leaves behind his mother, Rosemary Martell of Greenfield, and ex-wife Polly Parker, 47, of Northampton.



Grief poured out in various Facebook forums Saturday, recalling Martell’s generosity, kindness and smile. “Rest in musical peace,” someone wrote.



Reporter Rachel Rapkin of The Recorder contributed to this report.



Stephanie McFeeters can be reached at smcfeeters@gazettenet.com.





