John Martyn

A significant player on the UK folk scene, John Marty’s career began in the second half of the 1960s with two acoustic folk albums. After teaming up with wife Beverley for two further albums (both 1970), Martyn focussed on a solo career that spanned all the decades until his death at age sixty in 2009.

A feature of Martyn’s music is his incorporation of non-folk influences such as jazz, rock and even electronic devices. Perhaps even more importantly, Martyn’s restless probing of folk idioms and their contemporary resonance gave us the classic Solid Air (including the hit "May you never") and experimental (even funky!) "One World". Many guitar players have been influenced by his exploratory use of the echoplex device, heard to great effect on Live At Leeds. A trouble, restless, artist whose 1970s catalogue is a great place to start.