John Martyn

John Martyn, OBE (11 September 1948 – 29 January 2009), born as Iain David McGeachy, was a British singer-songwriter and guitarist. Over a 40-year career, he released 21 studio albums, and received frequent critical acclaim. Martyn began his career at age 17 as a key member of the British folk music scene, drawing inspiration from American blues and English traditional music, and signed with Island Records. By the 1970s he had begun incorporating jazz and rock into his sound on albums such as Solid Air (1973) and One World (1977), as well as experimenting with guitar effects and tape delay machines such as Echoplex. He struggled with substance abuse and domestic problems throughout the 1970s and 1980s, and continued to release albums while collaborating with figures such as Phil Collins and Lee "Scratch" Perry. He remained active until his death in 2009. He was described by The Times as "an electrifying guitarist and singer whose music blurred the boundaries between folk, jazz, rock and blues".

Mentored by Hamish Imlach, Martyn began his professional musical career when he was 17, playing a fusion of blues and folk resulting in a distinctive style which made him a key figure in the British folk scene during the mid-1960s. He signed to Chris Blackwell's Island Records in 1967 and released his first album, London Conversation, the following year.This first album was soon followed by The Tumbler, which was moving towards jazz. By 1970 Martyn had developed a wholly original and idiosyncratic sound: acoustic guitar run through a fuzzbox, phase shifter and Echoplex. (read more at…Wikipedia)

Links to Peel
In his early days, John Martyn performed in folk clubs, alongside the Incredible String Band and Bert Jansch, fellow Scottish folk-based artists who were admired by Peel. He was one of the many acoustic, folk-based artists who made their Peel session début on Night Ride (in July 1968). His second session, billed as John Martyn and Harold McNair, was on the celebrated John and Yoko Night Ride of 11 December 1968. It demonstrated how his style was developing away from folk, mixing his own material with blues standards and incorporating jazz influences through the flute playing of McNair, best-known to Peel listeners as an accompanist to Donovan. In 1969 he began to perform as half of a duo with his wife, singer Beverley. They made two albums before Martyn reverted to solo work, and further Peel sessions followed. John Martyn proved to have more staying power than most artists of the era, doing further sessions for Peel until 1978. After that he disapperaed from Peel's playlists but later became a favourite of Peel’s colleague Andy Kershaw.

tbc

Sessions

 * Number of sessions? Any commercial release of sessions?

1. Recorded: YYYY-MM-DD. First broadcast: DD Month YYYY. Repeated: DD Month YYY 2. Recorded: YYYY-MM-DD. First broadcast: DD Month YYYY. Repeated: DD Month YYY etc
 * Song title / Song Title / Song Title / Song Title
 * Song title / Song Title / Song Title / Song Title

(Please correct mistakes and add any missing info)

Other Shows Played
(Please add any missing info)
 * DD Month YYYY: Song (single/album) Label