11 Sep 2018
Today John would have turned 70.
So here's a happy birthday to the man that makes Heaven a less boring place.
01 Feb 2017
Front cover photograph © Miguel Capelo
Syd Kitchen (1951-2011) was a South African singer-songwriter, guitarist and poet. He made a contribution to the Johnny Boy Would Love This tribute album by covering Fine Lines – one of the last musical adventures of his life. His biography Scars That Shine appeared six years later. Author Donvé Lee had promised Syd to write his life's story many years before he passed away. But she only got around doing it after his death. So we have a rather unique document here: a biography that sounds like an autobiography. Thanks to extensive research Donvé pulled it off: "It's not often you come across an autobiography that isn’t written by the subject, but Lee went out on a creative limb and, writing in first person, succeeded in capturing Syd in his own voice".
The almost final chapter is dedicated to the John Martyn tribute project and is reproduced here with permission of the author. The book got excellent reviews and is for sale on Amazon as an e-book. It is well worth a read, as there are many similarities between John's career and Syd's.
10 May 2004
This is a transcription of a cassette tape from an interview conducted in the Bay Horse pub in Glasgow. It was used for the biography Some People Are Crazy by John Neil Munro so some quotes may sound familiar. John was interviewed several times; this occasion was after the release of On The Cobbles (April 2004) and before the concert in the Royal Concert Hall of 10 May 2004.
11 Jan 1981
Dopo tre anni di silenzio il chitarrista folk Brittannico torna con un album Grace & Danger in cui ripropone le sue linee di folk-rock. John Martyn è stato recentemente in Italia per una serie di concerti. L'intervista a Roma.
THE SAYING goes that old hippies fade away. But John Martyn is the exception to the rule - as he proved at the Hexagon last night. After more than 20 years on the circuit he just gets better, turning in a tight and brilliant set.
WRITING THIS in the summer of 2011, from the perspective of Pelicula Films Ltd having now produced five series of Transatlantic Sessions, and with director Mike Alexander and I having received the Good Tradition gong at the 2010 BBC Radio Two Folk Awards in recognition of what Transatlantic Sessions has done for the development and appreciation of traditional and country music, it's difficult t
Heaven And Earth
Hole In The Rain,
out tomorrow
* * * * *
Although he had originally begun his career as one of a wave of new British -mostly Scottish- folk singers in the late '60s, John Martyn was quick to test the boundaries of his chosen genre. A period spent working in Woodstock with such as The Band's drummer Levon Helm opened the young folkie's ears to the possibilities of folk-rock, and an interest in the work of John Coltrane and Pharoah Sanders led him towards introducing jazz elements into his own work.
Welcome
back, John
[So Sweet ends]
RE: I always look forward to any JM album and thankfully we have a long time to look forward to them for. This is a big sense of expectation that builds up over the years...
JM: How unkind...
For those who remember John Martyn in his acoustic troubadour days -and there were plenty of them here- listening to him eulogising the best jelly-roll in town to an urgent clawhammer guitar was a sobering experience.
Sunday’s Child was recorded and mixed during August 1974 at Island Studios in Hammersmith and released in January 1975. The sessions were short but intensive, producing songs of considerable contrasts from the rock ‘n’ roll Root Love and Clutches, to the traditional folk song Spencer The Rover. The overall feel of the album is one of contentment and John called it “the family album, very happy purely romantic...a nice period.”
PURELY MUSIC is the unique musical series recorded live at one of Germany's most prestigious music arenas and is Europe's only on-going live musical event. It focuses on diverse performers whose music reflects a strong African influence whether the style is Rhythm & Blues, Funk, Soul, Rock & Roll or Fusion.*)
The first site for John Martyn fans used to be the The John Martyn Connection, by music lover Kees van der Lely. Records, interviews and reader stories were to be found in an elaborate site. This was the first John Martyn fanpage on the internet but unfortunately Kees has decided to end this resource.
