solid air

John Martyn is the legendary British singer-songwriter and guitarist, once described by The Times as “an electrifying guitarist and singer whose music blurred the boundaries between folk, jazz, rock and blues”. With a career spanning over 40 years, he released 21 studio albums, working with such luminaries as Eric Clapton, David Gilmour and Phil Collins. Martyn began his professional musical career when he was 17, playing a blend of blues and folk resulting in a distinctive style which made him a key figure in the British folk scene during the mid-1960s. It was in the 70s that Martyn found fame as a solo artist and in ’73 he released one of the defining British albums of the decade, Solid Air, originally with Island Records, the title song being a tribute to the singer-songwriter Nick Drake, a close friend and label-mate, who sadly died in 1974. ‘Solid Air (Classics Revisited)’ contains 28 of Martyn’s classic tracks in celebration of a legend. The selections date from the early 90s, but it’s a testament to both singer and songs that you’d be hard-pressed to pin a date on them. Just to make life more complicated, all but the last five (which come from 1990’s ‘The Apprentice’) appeared on a pair of albums from ’92 and ’93 in which John revisited two decades’ worth of back catalogue in the company of such long-time pals as Phil Collins, Pink Floyd’s Dave Gilmour and the Band’s Levon Helm