The Songs of John Martyn

John Martyn occupied a unique place in the history of British music for over four decades until his death in January 2009. His work never troubled the top forty but he was one of the most innovative artists of his day. Eric Clapton,who covered his best known song ‘May You Never’, described him as ‘so far ahead of everything it’s almost inconceivable.’ But it wasn’t until 2008 that Martyn received a Lifetime Achievement award at the prestigious BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards. Weeks before his death John was awarded an MBE which he was destined never to collect.

John Martyn was the first white artist to be signed to Chris Blackwell’s Island label. Hot on his heels came Cat Stevens, Fairport Convention and of course Nick Drake,for whom John wrote the classic ‘Solid Air.’ The 1973 album of the same name is regarded as the benchmark John Martyn release. As the decade unfolded John continued to develop his unique fusion of folk,jazz and blues, always accompanied by the cream of British musicians such as Phil Collins, Pink Floyd’s David Gilmour and multi instrumentalist Steve Winwood. Most notable among them was former Pentangle bass player Danny Thompson with whom Martyn developed an almost telepathic musical relationship which endured until their final concerts together. They also wrecked a lot of hotel rooms and spent a great deal of time in pubs. John worked steadily through the eighties, beginning the decade with the classic ‘Grace And Danger’ release and maintaining a punishing performance schedule. The nineties were also a busy time, with numerous collaborations and retrospective releases. A 2004 BBC documentary ‘Johnny Too Bad’ filmed Martyn immediately prior to the amputation of a leg, further to which he continued to perform and record undaunted. Nor did the loss of a second leg stop him-‘I’m a hard person to kill’, he remarked with characteristic jocularity. He finally succumbed to double pneumonia on January 29th 2009.

The Songs Of John Martyn is not a tribute show but a celebration. It presents his best work in an authentic context but without being obsessive about details. John Martyn himself seldom played a song the same way twice and the spirit of improvisation imbued his studio and live work. We adhere to this principle and hope to bring some pleasure to his many fans-of whom we are two-who will sadly never see him perform again.