Immense Beauty, Intense Presence: British Icon John Martyn’s Legacy is Reimagined by Thirty Artists on Johnny Boy Would Love This…a Tribute to John Martyn

In the late ’60s, the late British guitarist and songwriter John Martyn broke ground by leaping from acoustic folk into highly successful experiments with tape delay, wild recording scenarios, and jazz-inspired arrangements. He became a cult figure among British musicians. A list of his admirers reads like a who’s-who of rock, pop, and even trip hop: Eric Clapton, The Band’s Levon Helm, Lee “Scratch” Perry, The Cure’s Robert Smith, Beck, Morcheeba.

To honor his life, thirty artists reveal the full breadth of Martyn’s creativity onJohnny Boy Would Love This…A Tribute to John Martyn (Hole in the Rain; August 16, 2011). The package will include a double CD digi-pak, 40-page booklet, and DVD that will feature interviews with a number of the contributing artists, performance videos, and rare live performances by John himself. Adding to this unique audio experience is the inclusion of John's actual guitar work on two of the tracks.

Musicians from several generations take on Martyn’s intense, sometimes joyful and sometimes despairing, but always influential work. They come from the fertile acoustic fringes (Vetiver, Beth Orton) and from the heart of rock and pop (Robert Smith, Phil Collins). They are elders of blues (Clarence Fountain and Sam Butler of the Blind Boys of Alabama) and young up-and-comers (John Smith and Sabrina Dinan).

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When Bob Marley listened to Martyn (his label mate from Island Records) perform from backstage, he turned to Island founder Chris Blackwell and asked, intrigued, “What band is that?” It was the charismatic Martyn, playing solo. Along with his charmingly rakish persona and intense musicianship, Martyn began using analogue effects on his acoustic guitar in the 1960s. The result was so big and distinctive that it transformed Britain’s rock, roots, and dance music.

“I first heard ‘Small Hours’ on the John Peel Show late in 1977 and fell instantly in love with it... ‘One World' very quickly became my favourite John Martyn album... And these beautiful songs were, are and always will be an inspiration and an enchantment.””—Robert Smith (“Small Hours”)

Martyn’s deep appreciation for jazz musicians like Pharoah Sanders, as well as his unfailing instinct for crafting evocative and musically complex songs, led him to the Echoplex, an early tape delay unit that allowed him to layer sound on sound live. The effect not only wowed Marley, but opened the door for Brian Eno’s ambient music, The Edge’s delay-soaked guitar, and a slew of recent loop-based solo artists.

“He was the very first folktroniker if ever there was one!”—Beth Orton (“Go Down Easy”)

His live innovations were matched with unconventional approaches to studio recording, audible on tracks like “Small Hours.” Recorded beside a lake at 3 a.m., Martyn played on one shore while the engineers sat on the other.

“John Martyn was a true pioneer within the world of acoustic music, and his work has left signs on the road for all of those who would follow. As well as being a deft guitar player and passionate singer, he was always very much alive to the possibilities of the studio, where he was a vivid creator of mood and atmosphere.” –David Gray (“Let the Good Things Come”)

Add excellent songs to that heady mix—gems like “Stormbringer,” “Glorious Fool,” “Bless the Weather,” and “May You Never”—and it’s easy to understand why generations of musicians have respected and loved the innately musical, tumultuous Martyn. He was everywhere in the ’60s and ’70s—and knew and inspired everyone. He struck up close friendships with Nick Drake, Phil Collins, and Eric Clapton, with Steve Winwood and Jimmy Page.

“John Martyn was unique. Completely unique. He had such power, such emotion, in his music that he could overwhelm the listener even when it was just him and an acoustic guitar.”—Phil Collins

Yet unlike many icons, Martyn never settled for pop stardom. He continued to innovate and reach new audiences. His classic album Solid Air was voted one of the best chill-out albums of all time in the 1990s, and Martyn was lionized by a new generation of trip hoppers.

"I can remember when I first heard [the seminal Martyn song] ‘Solid Air.’ I was around 20 years old. It was a bright sunny afternoon. The sound of the double bass and the twinkling of the piano was just delicious. I was totally smitten.”—Skye Edwards (“Solid Air”)

Despite the acclaim and recognition he received in Britain, Martyn remains a musician’s musician in the U.S., where his albums were not widely distributed. Johnny Boy Would Love This aims to bring the immense beauty Martyn sparked to new listeners.

“The album features all these young new artists, as well as some big guns and old friends,” says Jim Tullio, longtime Martyn friend and producer, who also covers Martyn’s “Road to Ruin” for the tribute. “They were elated to be asked, and really show how influential John has been. They’ve done more than just make for a nice standard tribute; they’ve breathed new life into John’s songs.”

Heaven and Earth: Musical Pioneer John Martyn’s Last Sonic Testament

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When the late British musical icon John Martyn sat down at the keys, veteran music producer and good friend Jim Tullio sighed. Martyn, an innovative guitarist and singer, had just finished a suite for the London National Ballet Company, which Tullio was mixing, but insisted he needed to lay down a keyboard part. Tullio prepared for hours of noodling, but Martyn made one pass and left. As Tullio incorporated the track into the mix, he was blown away.

“It worked perfectly,” Tullio recalls. “I learned a lesson then, to trust his instincts. John was a genius. He made music more naturally than anyone I’ve ever met, as effortlessly as the way you and I speak.”

Tullio is not alone in his assessment. Martyn, a cult-status musician’s musician, was admired by everyone from Eric Clapton and Jimmy Page to Lee “Scratch” Perry and Bob Marley. Martyn’s groundbreaking guitar technique, tape delay, and recording approaches inspired Brian Eno’s ambient sound and The Edge’s shimmering, delay-drenched strings. He was lionized by Bristol trip-hoppers and chill-out DJs.

After Martyn’s passing in early 2009, Tullio and co-producer Gary Pollitt put Martyn’s last musical testament in order, transforming rough-edged vocals, expansive takes, and complex guitar work into Heaven and Earth (Hole in the Rain; May 3, 2011). Martyn’s voice and striking songs reveal the depth and perception of a musical elder, with his signature grit and sprawling panache.

Several close friends and long-time musical collaborators—including Phil Collins—contributed elements to Heaven and Earth. But the heart of the album—felt on tracks like “Gambler” and “Bad Company”—beats in Martyn’s intuitive, idiosyncratic sense of the blues, filtered through his earthy feel for roots- and jazz-inspired songwriting and his raw voice.

Sounds like: the gritty yet sparkling last word from a neglected music legend who transformed rock, reggae, club music, and folk.

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“John didn’t think about much until he was there doing it. Making music was a spontaneous process, not preconceived. He had a cool vibe,” reflects Tullio, a longtime fan and musical collaborator. They first met in Martyn’s native Scotland, thanks to a colleague from the band Supertramp. “We stopped in this village behind a church and knocked on a cottage door,” Tullio remembers. “And there was John. My friend had set it up and surprised me.”

Before long, Tullio became Martyn’s American connection, reuniting Martyn with old friends like Levon Helm of The Band (whom Martyn met during a late-60s sojourn in Woodstock) and working on several of Martyn’s albums and composition projects. Martyn hung out for months at Tullio’s home and studio in Chicago, making music and becoming practically part of the family. “The personal and musical weren’t separate for John, as they aren’t for most brilliant artists,” Tullio notes.

The personal was complex, and involved a tragic addiction to drink. Martyn lost a leg to alcohol poisoning, yet continued recording, performing, and pushing his music in new directions. An admirer of Pharaoh Sanders for decades, Martyn had a project with Sanders scheduled for early in 2009. But illness took him first.

Tullio and Gary Pollitt, felt they owed it to their friend to put together the pieces of his last works. Tullio had first-hand experience with weaving together the recordings of a talented musician who died before his time, having crafted a Grammy®-winning final record by Steve Goodman (of “City of New Orleans” fame).

His experience didn’t make the labor of love before him any easier emotionally, though he and Pollitt shared a sense of how Martyn approached arrangements and of how best to honor his memory.

“We didn’t do any editing. A lot of the tracks are long—even rambling—but we left them that way, as John last heard them,” explains Tullio. “We knew this was it, so we made a conscious decision to keep everything, every morsel.”

In addition to instrumental tracks and backing vocals by some of Martyn’s favorite backup singers, Phil Collins, a close friend and avid supporter of Martyn’s, sang background vocals on his song “Can’t Turn Back The Years.” Martyn covered Collins’s song, in part as a tribute to their bond, forged as the two men were both grappling with divorce in 1980. (Martyn crashed at Collins’s home for a spell.)

“John wanted to do one of Phil’s songs to repay him,” said Tullio. “After John passed, I spoke with Phil  and he really wanted to sing on the track. He said he had always wanted John to record one of his songs. You can hear the emotion in both their voices.” It’s a haunting feeling that pervades all of Heaven and Earth.