Martin Sexton heads to Elkton Music Hall in March

The singer-songwriter plays the 300-capacity room in downtown Elkton on Thursday, March 4, 2027, his first show in the Wilmington area since May 2023.

Martin Sexton last played the Wilmington area in May 2023, at the Baby Grand. A couple of months later, a few miles down the road across the Maryland line, a new music room opened in an old Ford dealership. Next March he plays it.

Martin Sexton plays Elkton Music Hall in Elkton, Md., on Thursday, March 4, 2027, at 8 p.m. Tickets are through DICE. The show was announced Oct. 19. It's his first Wilmington-area date since May 7, 2023.

Sexton's last two years have been about one record. The Live Wide Open tour marks 25 years since his double live album *Live Wide Open*. Venues on the run describe it as a tour that highlights the songs and spirit that made the record a fan favorite, along with some new material and surprise covers. The run has worked its way through rooms like City Winery and Knoxville's Bijou, and it continues into 2027, with Greenville's Peace Center booking him for March 11 and 12 at its Mockingbird room. The Elkton date comes a week before that.

A live record is the right anniversary for him. Promoters on the tour keep printing the same John Mayer line about Sexton: "The best live performer I've ever seen." Whether or not you take it literally, it explains why people keep buying tickets to see a guitar and a voice.

Elkton Music Hall suits that. The room opened in the summer of 2023 at 107 North Street, in a building that began as Boulden Ford, Cecil County's first Ford Motor Car dealership, in the early 1900s. The Cecil Daily reported that the grand opening drew more than 150 people for three acts, and that the room had its first sellout less than ten days later, on its fourth show. Son Volt played there that July 24. It holds 300 or so, with a 500-square-foot stage and a bar, and it books national touring acts alongside local and regional bands as part of the Elkton Arts and Entertainment District.

A guitar, a voice and 300 people in an old Ford showroom.

A 300-capacity room is close to the ideal setting for a show built on an artist's live reputation. It's small enough that you can hear him switch from a whisper to a full-throated holler without a sound system doing the work. For Wilmington folks, it's an easy drive down I-95 on a Thursday night.

A few things to know. It's an 8 p.m. start on a weeknight. Tickets are on DICE, so download the app ahead of time. With 300 tickets for a tour this well received, it's worth not waiting.

Nearly four years is a long gap. On March 4, Sexton gets a small room in a historic building, and Elkton gets the kind of night it opened a music hall for.

Sources: Elkton Music Hall holds ribbon-cutting ceremony – Cecil Daily (cecildaily.com); Son Volt at Elkton Music Hall, July 24, 2023 – JamBase (jambase.com); Cecil TV: Ric Cunningham from Elkton Music Hall, A Significant Addition to Downtown Elkton (cecil.tv); Martin Sexton Live Wide Open Tour – City Winery (tickets.citywinery.com); Martin Sexton Live Wide Open Tour 2026 – Peace Center (peacecenter.org); Martin Sexton Live Wide Open Tour 2026 – Knoxville Bijou (knoxbijou.org); Martin Sexton Live Wide Open Tour – SHU Community Theatre (shucommunitytheatre.org); Martin Sexton at Elkton Music Hall – DICE (link.dice.fm)