Martyn
soothed the soul with his folk blues
The early
70s were a golden time for new music albums.
In 1973 singer songwriter and expert guitarist, John Martyn, released a
defining British album of the 1970s Solid
Air. The title song was a tribute to Nick Drake. He developed a new sound
of acoustic guitar through a fuzz box, phase shifts and Echoplayer first shown
on the album Stormbringer.
Martyn’s
music exhibited feelings of serenity, freedom and rapture that he craved in his
life. In 1967 he recorded his experimental album London Conversation outside, which gave the record a free,
unconstructed feel. . I was going to write this blog about John, but when I started reading about him I discovered he gained much from his wife Beverly Kuter (which then led to my blog on woman and art).
I read
recently about Beverly Martyn (or Bev
Kutner) who had worked with Paul Simon, Nick Drake and Jimmy Page before
she met John. I was surprised to hear of their song writing collaborations, her
being a partnership with John and then her being left at home with the
children, a home on top of a hill. A home she didn't even choose.
Apparently
John Martyn wrote his best songs with Beverly Kutner, his wife, which she gets
little credit for. Bev played piano
while they wrote songs together for the album Solid Air and John would say that he would ‘credit her on the next
song!’
Beverly and Martyn recorded three albums
together - Stormbringer, Road to Ruin and
Bless the Weather - before John was persuaded by his record label to go
solo. Beverly
was then left on the house on the hill to raise their children while John
toured. When John turned to drink he became abusive towards her and after one
threatening scene Bev decided to leave him after ten years of marriage.
....and yet
John wrote the song May You Never with
Bev, all very poignant really.
Martyn was born Iain McGreachy and he gew up with an unsettled childhood. John spent his childhood between his grandmother in Glasgow and his mother in London. On tour Martyn was accompanied by jazz double bass player Danny Thompson for most of his music career. His blend of stand out bluesy folk and slurry style of singing gave Martyn a stand out sound on the 1960s folk circuit. Over his 40 year career John released 21 studio albums.
Times quote – ‘an electrifying guitarist and singer whose music blurred the lines between the boundaries of folk, jazz, rock and blues.’
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