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John Martyn was a British singer-songwriter and guitarist.
The Road To Ruin was the second album John Martyn released as a duo with his wife Beverly, after Stormbringer from earlier the same year. Like before, the vocals were shared between the two of them, though this time John dominated the songwriting somewhat (only one song is credited to Beverly alone). Again it was produced by Joe Boyd. Stylistically it was more diverse than its predecessor, also being John's most diverse and wide-ranging album to date, mixing different strands of folk, blues, rock and jazz. Many of the songs featured some prominant saxophones, and the two of them are backed throughout by a long list of musicians, including bassist Dave Pegg (of Fairport Convention), keyboard player Paul Harris, and on one song double bassist Danny Thompson (the first instance of his long partnership with Martyn - Thompson had previously worked with Alexis Korner, Davy Graham, Tim Buckley, Pentangle and others).
The album wasn't much of a success, though retrospectively can be seen as an excellent and worthwhile record. Nevertheless Island Records decided that Martyn would sell better as a solo act rather than as part of a duo, so it turned out to be his last album with Beverly, and after its release he resumed his solo career.
Stormbringer (1970) <|> Bless The Weather (1971)
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John Martyn was a British singer-songwriter and guitarist.
John Martyn's third album was recorded as a collaboration with his wife, Beverly. Though rather than performing as a harmonizing duo (which could have potentially had very successful results), the record was instead split between performances by the two of them, and Beverly just contributed four songs to John's six. So in reality Stormbringer was a John Martyn solo album featuring a few songs written and sung by his wife.
Martyn's sound changed a fair bit from his first two folk-based albums, as Stormbringer was recorded in Woodstock under the musical direction of Paul Harris, and produced by Joe Boyd (then best known for producing The Incredible String Band and Fairport Convention). Harris played piano and keyboards and handled the band and string arrangements. Bass was handled by Harvey Brooks (a seasoned folk-rock session player), and drums were shared by Billy Mundi, Herbie Lovell and Levon Helm. John Simon also appeared at one point on harpsichord.
The result of these different circumstances of recording was that Stormbringer leant much further towards folk-rock than Martyn's earlier records. Half of the songs had full band arrangements, with a big, deep, powerful sound based around acoustic guitar, piano, bass and drums. It would have been very interesting if Martyn had recorded more in this style, as these five songs undeniably had a unique sound all of their own. Elsewhere the album featured harpsichord and string arrangements, so that Martyn's guitar didn't play such an important role,.
Stormbringer was a bit of an anomaly in Martyn's discography, but a very interesting and worthwhile one.
The Tumbler (1968) <|> The Road To Ruin (1970)
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The Road To Ruin was the second album John Martyn released as a duo with his wife Beverly, after Stormbringer from earlier the same year. Like before, the vocals were shared between the two of them, though this time John dominated the songwriting somewhat (only one song is credited to Beverly alone). Again it was produced by Joe Boyd. Stylistically it was more diverse than its predecessor, also being John's most diverse and wide-ranging album to date, mixing different strands of folk, blues, rock and jazz. Many of the songs featured some prominant saxophones, and the two of them are backed throughout by a long list of musicians, including bassist Dave Pegg (of Fairport Convention), keyboard player Paul Harris, and on one song double bassist Danny Thompson (the first instance of his long partnership with Martyn - Thompson had previously worked with Alexis Korner, Davy Graham, Tim Buckley, Pentangle and others).
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