John Martyn

Solid Air (Island ’73) Rating: A-
Although he’s long been a respected name on the English folk scene (members of Fairport Convention play on this album and he was a friend/peer of Nick Drake), John Martyn deserves to be better known by the public at large. Martyn has a warm, husky voice, considerable guitar playing skills, and the songwriting talent to match, and his uniquely eclectic brand of jazz tinged (particularly Danny Thompson’s bass) folk rock hasn’t aged a day since Solid Air (generally considered Martyn’s best album, though I need to hear more before making that claim for myself) was first released. This albums first three songs are effortlessly great. The title track features tinkly late night keyboards, acoustic guitar, jazzy bass, and sultry sax, but above all it is Martyn’s slurred vocals that make the song such a standout. An at times monotonously repetitive mood piece, the song nevertheless evokes quite a haunting mood, and the lyrics in tribute to Drake pack an emotional punch given Drake’s sad passing soon afterwards. “Over The Hill,” which could’ve easily been a hit single, is in fact very Drake-like but is more upbeat and catchy, though Martyn’s deeper voice is less distinctive, while the slinky melody of “Don’t Want To Know” easily insinuates itself into your brain, helped along by its memorable catchphrase (“I don’t want to know about evil, I only wanna know about love”). Though those frontloaded songs are the album’s clear highlights to me along with “May You Never” (an easy going, delightfully sincere and gentle little love song later covered by Eric Clapton), there are other fine songs as well. For example, there’s “Go Down Easy,” a simple but effective blues-based acoustic ballad, “Dreams By The Sea,” which is notable for its jazzy guitar and low-key folk groove (Martyn is a much more diverse artist than Drake, though that doesn’t always work to his advantage), and “Man In The Station,” another low-key, late night mood piece with whispery vocals. Alas, Martyn seems to be less adept at rocking out, as the highly percussive, harsher “I’d Rather Be The Devil” (a Skip James cover) is a bit of a mess (though I like the long song’s mellow fadeout far more than it’s fusion-y main part), flowing far less naturally than his mellower compositions. Martyn’s rough-hewn blues vocal on “Jelly Roll Blues” is also lacking, but it is the song’s ridiculous lyrics (“I’m so wild about your jelly roll”) that really marks it as a filler track, though again I actually like the last minute of the song (the part titled “Gentle Blues,” as technically the song is a 2-part medley). You see, many of these songs shift directions unexpectedly, which keeps things interesting and makes at least parts of every song here enjoyable. The warm, spacious production (by John Wood, who also worked with Drake) adds to the album’s agreeable ambiance as well, and certainly fans of Richard Thompson and Nick Drake would be wise to investigate Solid Air, which is a “forgotten gem” just waiting to be “rediscovered” by a cult following.

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