Many of John's albums contained liner notes that are reproduced here. Some are biographical, some are long appreciations by almost literary critics. Sometimes John himself has taken down some notes but he obviously didn't waste much time on this.
The Japanese CD release of Well kept secret also contained five pages of liner notes, but unfortunately in Japanese..
It's fair to say that by 1968 the notion of what British folk music represented had changed radically.
In 1980, with the various Irish bands who have taken the easy road in terms of rock'n'roll fashion, it is easy to overlook the emergence and development of other groups. Scullion are a good example
Despite a string of successful albums and an enviable reputation as a performer, commercial success and mainstream popularity had eluded John Martyn, not that it concerned him in the slightest!
"SOME OF THE happiest moments of my playing life were on stage with John... He was unique and he had a big heart. He was one of a kind." That was friend, occasional producer, and fan, Phil Collins, remembering John Martyn who died in 2009.
Originally this film was called 'Tell Them I'm Somebody Else' and was released in 2001 on VHS, the accepted format of the time. After John's death in 2009, we felt that we would like to make a tribute to John from the amazing amount of unseen and moving footage we had filmed over the years and indeed which had been filmed from the unique perspective of close friendship.
After much deliberation, we decided to do a complete re-edit of the original film replacing half of the material with new unseen footage creating a different film altogether for release on this DVD.
We are very proud of the result and hope you enjoy it as much as we do. It is a tribute to a very special man, a tremendous artist, and most of all a great friend. Enjoy.
Cheers
Lyn and Eleanor
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 to think back to 1997 when we had just begun trying to get a second series off the ground.
The 40 page booklet contains testimonials by all contributing artists, and track and session details in an exuberant layout. The introduction is written by Island founder Chris Blackwell.
Good musicians are commonplace, good singer and songwriters less so, but a pioneer whose absolute imagination and genius changes the sounds and textures of music forever is rare indeed.
