John Martyn - Bless the Weather
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CD Details
Artist: John MartynEdition: Music CD
Audio: English (Original Language)
Format: Extra tracks, Import, Original recording remastered
CD Release Date: 2005-11-21
Music Label: Ume Imports
Soundtracks:
- Go Easy
- Bless the Weather
- Sugar Lump
- Walk To the Water
- Just Now
- Head And Heart
- Let the Good Things Come
- Back Down the River
- Glistening Glyndebourne
- Singin' In the Rain
- Walk To the Water
- Bless the Weather
- Back Down the River
- Go Easy
- Glistening Glyndebourne
- Head And Heart
- May You Never
Music reviews of Bless the Weather
Music Review: A John Martyn Classic
Rating: 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.
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Description of Bless the Weather
Remastered reissue of the 1971 album features the 10 original tracks plus the 7 bonus tracks 'Walk On The Water' (take 3/previously unreleased), 'Bless The Weather' (take 4/previously unreleased), 'Back Down The River' (take 1/previously unreleased), 'Go Easy' (take 1/previously unreleased), 'Glistening Glyndebourne' (take 2/previously unreleased), 'Head & Heart' & 'May You Never'. Universal. 2005.Folk CDs
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