Bless the Weather is a 1971 album by John Martyn and marks his return as a solo artist having released two albums with his wife Beverley Martyn

Beverley Martyn

Beverley Martyn is a singer, songwriter, and guitarist.While still a student, she was picked to front The Levee Breakers, a jug band who played the folk circuit in South East England...

. When it was released it garnered his best reviews to date, and remains a firm favourite among fans, featuring such standards as "Head and Heart" and the title track. The album is predominantly acoustic, although it does feature Martyn's first real 'echoplex

Echoplex

The Echoplex is a tape delay effect, first made in 1959. Designed by Mike Battle, the Echoplex set a standard for the effect in the 1960s and was used by some of the most notable guitar players of the era; original Echoplexes are highly sought after....

' track in "Glistening Glyndebourne".

Q magazine chose Bless the Weather among the dozen essential folk albums of all time in 1999. According to Q, the album recorded in just three days. In November 2007, Bless the Weather was included in a list by The Guardian

The Guardian

The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...

 newspaper entitled '1000 Albums to Hear Before You Die'. Beck

Beck

Beck Hansen is an American musician, singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist, known by the stage name Beck...

 remade "Go Easy" for a webcast performance.

Track listing

All tracks composed by John Martyn; except where indicated

1. "Go Easy" – 4:15
2. "Bless the Weather" – 4:29
3. "Sugar Lump" – 3:43
4. "Walk to the Water" – 2:49
5. "Just Now" – 3:39
6. "Head and Heart" – 4:54
7. "Let the Good Things Come" – 3:05
8. "Back Down the River" – 2:40
9. "Glistening Glyndebourne
   Glyndebourne
   Glyndebourne is a country house, thought to be about six hundred years old, located near Lewes in East Sussex, England. It is also the site of an opera house which, with the exception of its closing during the Second World War, for a few immediate post-war years, and in 1993 during the...
   
   " – 6:30
10. "Singin' in the Rain
    Singin' in the Rain (song)
    "Singin' In the Rain" is a song with lyrics by Arthur Freed and music by Nacio Herb Brown, published in 1929. However, it is unclear exactly when the song was written with some claiming that the song was written and performed as early as 1927. The song was listed as Number 3 on AFI's 100 Years.....
    
    " (Nacio Herb Brown
    Nacio Herb Brown
    Nacio Herb Brown was an American writer of popular songs, movie scores, and Broadway theatre music in the 1920s through the early 1950s.-Biography:...
    
    , Arthur Freed
    Arthur Freed
    Arthur Freed was born Arthur Grossman in Charleston, South Carolina. He was a Jewish American lyricist and a Hollywood film producer.- Biography :Freed began his career as a song-plugger and pianist in Chicago...
    
    ) – 1:28

Bonus tracks
Recorded at a demo session, Sound Technique Studios, Chelsea 16 April 1969

1. "Walk to the Water" (Take 3) (3:34)
2. "Bless the Weather" (Take 4) (5:37)
3. "Back Down the River" (Take 1) (2:44)
4. "Go Easy" (Take 1) (4:39)
5. "Glistening Glyndebourne" (Take 2) (7:48)
6. "Head and Heart" (Band Version) (10:17)
7. "May You Never" (Single Version) (2:45)

Personnel

• John Martyn
  John Martyn
  John Martyn, OBE , born Iain David McGeachy, was a British singer-songwriter and guitarist. Over a forty-year career he released twenty studio albums, working with artists such as Eric Clapton and David Gilmour...
  
   - vocals, guitar, harmonica, keyboards
• Richard Thompson - guitar
• Smiley DeJonnes - percussion
• Beverley Martyn
  Beverley Martyn
  Beverley Martyn is a singer, songwriter, and guitarist.While still a student, she was picked to front The Levee Breakers, a jug band who played the folk circuit in South East England...
  
   - guitar, vocals
• Danny Thompson
  Danny Thompson
  Daniel Henry Edward 'Danny' Thompson is an English multi-instrumentalist best known as a double bassist and businessman...
  
   - double bass
  Double bass
  The double bass, also called the string bass, upright bass, standup bass or contrabass, is the largest and lowest-pitched bowed string instrument in the modern symphony orchestra, with strings usually tuned to E1, A1, D2 and G2...
  
  
• Tony Reeves
  Tony Reeves
  Anthony 'Tony' Reeves is an English bass guitarist/contrabassist, noted for his "extremely prominent and complex bass sound" and use of electronic effects...
  
   - double bass
  Double bass
  The double bass, also called the string bass, upright bass, standup bass or contrabass, is the largest and lowest-pitched bowed string instrument in the modern symphony orchestra, with strings usually tuned to E1, A1, D2 and G2...
  
  , bass guitar
  Bass guitar
  The bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....
  
  
• Ian Whiteman
  Ian Whiteman
  Ian Whiteman is a musician, calligrapher and graphic designer from England.- Musical career :Whiteman's early musical career included the band The Action, a 1960s London-based mod and soul music-influenced pop group; he was in Mighty Baby for a while before becoming a session musician, backing...
  
   - keyboards
• Roger Powell - drums

External links

• The John Martyn Website