Search - John Martyn :: Bless the Weather

Martyn hits his stride...

B. Bowman | Jersey, United States | 01/28/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I own all of John Martyn's albums and I would rank "Bless The Weather" as one of his best. Martyn wrote the material for this album quickly and says in the liner notes (and on the album during a conversation with one of the engineers which was left in the final mix), that it "felt natural". There is a certain back to the roots feel to this disc; Martyn had yet to delve into his exploratory period of recording his guitar with the echoplex, and this album is largely acoustic. Martyn's playing is excellent throughout the album, his guitar work on "Head and Heart" is a mix of jaw dropping technical profiency and improvisational genius. In my opinion, Martyn was really coming into his own as a songwriter during this period of his career, and there are songs on "Bless The Weather" which are stunning. I don't think I have ever listened to "Just Now" one time without repeating it again, a beautiful and soulful vocal and piano and guitar arrangement. Martyn also duets with his wife Beverly on "Let The Good Things Come", which is another one of his best songs of a haunting nature. I would recommend this disc to any newcomer to John Martyn's music, it is some of his most accessible work and a great collection of songs and performances. Needless to say, if you are already a fan of his music and don't have "Bless The Weather", this is an essential purchase."

Martyn's masterpiece

William M. Feagin | Salem, MA | 06/28/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Of all of John Martyn's work for Island Records, this is surely one of the (if not THE) best of them. Between the title cut and "Glistening Glyndebourne," you need know little more...but all of the tracks are excellent, even his breezy little cover of "Singin' in the Rain," which takes the original album out on a happy note. "Head and Heart" is one of the best love songs I have ever heard. The bonus tracks are all pretty good, too, on this expanded edition, although to be honest, I prefer JM's acoustic version of "May You Never," the officially released version included on Solid Air, to the band version here; that said, this version is not bad. (Another is included as a bonus track on the Deluxe Edition of Paul Kossoff's Back Street Crawler; JM and PK put this song together originally.) Highly recommended."

A John Martyn Classic

Ben | UK | 08/14/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Bless The Weather is arguably John Martyn's finest recording moments on vinyl (as it was then). What this album manages to achieve is the near perfect blend of contemporary folk music and jazz, and with John's wonderfully expressive vocals, he just can barely put a foot wrong here. The atmosphere of the whole album is laid back, but at the same time completely manages to grip the listener from start to finish.



'Go Easy' is the ideal opener, has a real lazy feeling to it and sets up the whole mood for the album. 'Bless The Weather' demonstrates the perfect fusion of jazz and folk. Danny Thompson, a veteran UK jazz double bassist, who accompanies John Martyn has a strong presence here and features on most of the other tracks. In fact much of the time during the '70s he was the only musician to accompany Martyn on stage, and the two of them became great pals. He has a complete empathy for Martyn's guitar playing and music. 'Sugar Lump' is the only disappointment on BTW. It just isn't up to the high quality of the other songs. 'Walk On The Water' adds an xylophone giving a watery feel to the song. 'Just Now' is a sincere and emotional (but never cloying) ballad about relationships, with John on guitar and a very melodic piano as accompaniment, and it closes the first half of the album.



'Head And Heart' starts the second half, more upbeat and again strongly features Danny Thompson. This is the most commercial sounding track of the album, but excellent nonetheless. 'Let The Good Times Come' deserves a special mention. It features John's (then) wife and former recording partner, Beverly Martyn. Here she uses her voice as a background instrument. The result is highly startling and effective. 'Back Down The River' is a plain gentle song, just John on his own, short and sweet. We then come to the climax of the whole album, 'Glistening Glyndebourne'. This is a six and a half minute instrumental epic. It starts out building slowly for a couple of minutes with piano, double bass and guitar, before markedly picking up tempo, and adding congas and drums. Martyn for the first time uses Echoplex on his guitar, which adds rhythmic layers of sound to the whole piece, a technique that he was to feature prominently on future recordings. Martyn finally closes out with a short but idiosyncratic version of 'Singing In The Rain'. On its own this track would be questionable, but in context it is a light humoured response to the previous mammoth track and it wraps up the original album beautifully.



As usual there are the obligatory bonus tracks, 11-17, but the version of May You Never sounds like it was recorded in the 1980s when John was by then working live with a band. In any case the original version wasn't recorded until John's follow up album to this, Solid Air, so it is out of place here anyway. Personally, with the exception of the alternative take, Glistening Glyndebourne, I would have preferred no other bonus tracks.



Apart from this anomaly, the album (the original part) is a true classic."