Beverley Martyn (born Beverley Kutner 24 March 1947) is an English

singer Singing is the act of creating musical sounds with the voice. A person who sings is called a singer, artist or vocalist (in jazz and/or popular music). Singers perform music (arias, recitatives, songs, etc.) that can be sung with or witho ...

songwriter A songwriter is a musician who professionally composes musical compositions or writes lyrics for songs, or both. The writer of the music for a song can be called a composer, although this term tends to be used mainly in the classical music ...

and

guitarist A guitarist (or a guitar player) is a person who plays the guitar. Guitarists may play a variety of guitar family instruments such as classical guitars, acoustic guitars, electric guitars, and bass guitars. Some guitarists accompany themselve ...

. At various times, Martyn has worked with

John Martyn Iain David McGeachy (11 September 1948 – 29 January 2009), known professionally as John Martyn, was a Scottish singer-songwriter and guitarist. Over a 40-year career, he released 23 studio albums, and received frequent critical acclaim. ...

Levon Helm Mark Lavon "Levon" Helm (May 26, 1940 – April 19, 2012) was an American musician who achieved fame as the drummer and one of the three lead vocalists for the Band, for which he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1994. H ...

Jimmy Page James Patrick Page (born 9 January 1944) is an English musician who achieved international success as the guitarist and founder of the Rock music, rock band Led Zeppelin. Page is prolific in creating guitar riffs. His style involves various ...

Dave Pegg Dave Pegg (born 2 November 1947) is an English multi-instrumentalist and record producer, primarily a bass guitarist. He is the longest-serving member of the British folk rock band Fairport Convention and has been bassist with a number of fol ...

, Richard Thompson,

John Renbourn John Renbourn (8 August 1944 – 26 March 2015) was an English guitarist and songwriter. He was best known for his collaboration with guitarist Bert Jansch as well as his work with the folk group Pentangle, although he maintained a solo care ...

Ralph McTell Ralph McTell (born Ralph May, 3 December 1944) is an English singer-songwriter and acoustic guitar player who has been an influential figure on the UK folk music scene since the 1960s. McTell is best known for his song " Streets of London" (196 ...

Davy Graham David Michael Gordon "Davey" Graham (originally spelled Davy Graham) (26 November 1940 – 15 December 2008) was a British guitarist and one of the most influential figures in the 1960s British folk revival. He inspired many famous practitioners ...

and

Sandy Denny Alexandra Elene MacLean Denny (6 January 1947 – 21 April 1978) was an English singer who was lead singer of the British folk rock band Fairport Convention. She has been described as "the pre-eminent British folk rock singer". After briefly w ...

. She appeared in the photograph on the album sleeve of Bert Jansch's 1965 album, ''

It Don't Bother Me ''It Don't Bother Me'' is the second album by Scottish folk musician Bert Jansch, released in November 1965. The album was produced by Nathan Joseph and Bill Leader, although Leader was left uncredited. The album features nine songs and two ins ...

'', where she can be seen lounging in the background.

Early life and career

Martyn was born near

Coventry Coventry ( or ) is a city in the West Midlands, England. It is on the River Sherbourne. Coventry has been a large settlement for centuries, although it was not founded and given its city status until the Middle Ages. The city is governed ...

, England. While still a student, she was picked to front The Levee Breakers, a

jug band A jug band is a band employing a jug player and a mix of conventional and homemade instruments. These homemade instruments are ordinary objects adapted to or modified for making sound, like the washtub bass, washboard, spoons, bones, stovep ...

featuring Mac McGann and Johnny Joyce, who played the folk circuit in south east England. At the age of 16 she recorded her first single. "Babe I'm Leaving You", which was released on the

Parlophone Parlophone Records Limited (also known as Parlophone Records and Parlophone) is a German–British record label founded in Germany in 1896 by the Carl Lindström Company as Parlophon. The British branch of the label was founded on 8 August 19 ...

label in 1965. Martyn was then signed as a solo artist to the

Deram Records Deram Records was a subsidiary record label of Decca Records established in the United Kingdom in 1966. At the time, U.K. Decca was a different company from the Decca label in the United States, which was owned by MCA Inc. Deram recordings ...

label. In 1966 she released a single, "Happy New Year" (

b-side The A-side and B-side are the two sides of phonograph records and cassettes; these terms have often been printed on the labels of two-sided music recordings. The A-side usually features a recording that its artist, producer, or record company ...

"Where The Good Times Are"),

written Writing is a medium of human communication which involves the representation of a language through a system of physically inscribed, mechanically transferred, or digitally represented symbols. Writing systems do not themselves constitute ...

Randy Newman Randall Stuart Newman (born November 28, 1943) is an American singer-songwriter, arranger, composer, and pianist known for his Southern-accented singing style, early Americana-influenced songs (often with mordant or satirical lyrics), and vari ...

, on which she was accompanied by

John Paul Jones John Paul Jones (born John Paul; July 6, 1747 July 18, 1792) was a Scottish-American naval captain who was the United States' first well-known naval commander in the American Revolutionary War. He made many friends among U.S political elites ( ...

Nicky Hopkins Nicholas Christian "Nicky" Hopkins (24 February 1944 – 6 September 1994) was an English pianist and organist. Hopkins performed on many popular and enduring British and American rock music recordings from the 1960s to the 1990s, most notably ...

and Andy White. "Happy New Year" was chosen as the first single release on the brand new Deram label, distributed by Decca Records, in 1966, catalogue number DM 101. The second single was the

Cat Stevens Yusuf Islam (born Steven Demetre Georgiou; ), commonly known by his stage names Cat Stevens, Yusuf, and Yusuf / Cat Stevens, is a British singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. His musical style consists of folk, pop, rock, and, later in ...

hit, " I Love My Dog" (DM 102). She also recorded a then unreleased single in the same year, "Picking Up The Sunshine" / " Gin House Blues". These last two tracks also featured

and

Mike Lease Mike may refer to: Animals * Mike (cat), cat and guardian of the British Museum * Mike the Headless Chicken, chicken that lived for 18 months after his head had been cut off * Mike (chimpanzee), a chimpanzee featured in several books and document ...

. The single was released in April 2017. During that period she was taught the guitar by the folk guitarist

Bert Jansch Herbert Jansch (3 November 1943 – 5 October 2011) was a Scottish folk musician and founding member of the band Pentangle. He was born in Glasgow and came to prominence in London in the 1960s as an acoustic guitarist and singer-songwriter ...

, who also encouraged her songwriting. Her follow-up single "Museum", written by

Donovan Donovan Phillips Leitch (born 10 May 1946), known mononymously as Donovan, is a Scottish musician, songwriter, and record producer. He developed an eclectic and distinctive style that blended folk, jazz, pop, psychedelic rock and world musi ...

and

produced Producer or producers may refer to: Occupations *Producer (agriculture), a farm operator *A stakeholder of economic production *Film producer, supervises the making of films **Executive producer, contributes to a film's budget and usually does not ...

Denny Cordell Dennis Cordell-Lavarack (1 August 1943 – 18 February 1995), known as Denny Cordell, was an English record producer. He is notable for his mid-1960s and early 1970s productions of hit singles for The Moody Blues, Leon Russell, The Move, Pr ...

, was released in 1967. Closely involved with the folk scene at the time, she met Paul Simon who invited her to

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

. On the

Simon & Garfunkel Simon & Garfunkel were an American folk rock duo consisting of the singer-songwriter Paul Simon and the singer Art Garfunkel. They were one of the best-selling music groups of the 1960s, and their biggest hits—including the electric remix of ...

album An album is a collection of audio recordings issued on compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl, audio tape, or another medium such as Digital distribution#Music, digital distribution. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early ...

'' Bookends'', she contributed to the track "Fakin' It", in the middle of which she is heard saying: "Good morning, Mr Leitch, have you had a busy day?" She later appeared at the

Monterey Pop Festival The Monterey International Pop Festival was a three-day music festival held June 16 to 18, 1967, at the Monterey County Fairgrounds in Monterey, California. The festival is remembered for the first major American appearances by the Jimi Hendrix ...

on 16 June 1967, as did Simon & Garfunkel.

With John Martyn

In 1969, she met John Martyn, whom she later married. As a

duo Duo may refer to: Places *Duo, West Virginia, an unincorporated community and coal town in Greenbrier County, West Virginia *Duo, Tampere, a shopping centre in Hervanta, Tampere, Finland *DUO, a twin-tower development in Singapore Arts, entertai ...

they issued two albums, ''

Stormbringer! ''Stormbringer!'' is a 1970 album released by John and Beverley Martyn. It has no connection to Michael Moorcock's 1965 Elric novel of the same name. John Martyn wrote six of the ten songs and Beverley four. The album was recorded under the d ...

'' and '' The Road to Ruin'' both of which were released on

Island Records Island Records is a multinational record label owned by Universal Music Group. It was founded in 1959 by Chris Blackwell, Graeme Goodall, and Leslie Kong in Jamaica, and was eventually sold to PolyGram in 1989. Island and A&M Records, an ...

. Following ''The Road to Ruin'', Island persuaded John Martyn to resume his career as a solo artist, because they believed that there was more public interest in solo singer/songwriters.John Martyn: guitarist and singer
''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper '' The Sunday Times'' ...

'', 30 January 2009, p. 75, "Obituaries". Although she was spending more time with her children, Martyn continued to contribute to her husband's solo projects until the breakdown of their marriage. The couple divorced during the making of John Martyn's album '' Grace and Danger'' in 1980 and she retired from music for years.

Return to music

In the 1990s, with her children now grown, she was invited to join

Loudon Wainwright III Loudon Snowden Wainwright III (born September 5, 1946) is an American singer-songwriter and occasional actor. He has released twenty-six studio albums, four live albums, and six compilations. Some of his best-known songs include "The Swimmin ...

on his European tour. In 1998 she resumed her recording career with the release of the album ''No Frills''. In 2004, Martyn's song "Primrose Hill", about the simple joys of domesticity, which she wrote and sang on ''Road To Ruin'', was sampled by

Fat Boy Slim Norman Quentin Cook (born Quentin Leo Cook, 31 July 1963), also known by his stage name Fatboy Slim, is an English musician, DJ, and record producer who helped to popularise the big beat genre in the 1990s. In the 1980s, Cook was the bassist f ...

for the track "North West Three" on his 2004 album '' Palookaville''. On 3 December 2013, she performed the song "Levee Breaks" with her band at the concert 'A Celebration Of Bert Jansch' at London's Royal Festival Hall, alongside

Robert Plant Robert Anthony Plant (born 20 August 1948) is an English singer and songwriter, best known as the lead singer and lyricist of the English rock band Led Zeppelin for all of its existence from 1968 until 1980, when the band broke up following th ...

and various members of Pentangle, amongst others.Bert Jansch Celebration
''

The Observer ''The Observer'' is a British newspaper Sunday editions, published on Sundays. It is a sister paper to ''The Guardian'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', whose parent company Guardian Media Group, Guardian Media Group Limited acquired it in 1993. ...

''; published 8 December 2013, retrieved 28-04-14 The concert was broadcast by BBC4 in the UK on 28 March 2014 under the name ''The Genius of Bert Jansch: Folk Blues and Beyond''.Folk Radio
published 25 March 2014, retrieved 23-04-14 Martyn released a new album in 2014 entitled ''The Phoenix and The Turtle''. It contains a previously unrecorded

Nick Drake Nicholas Rodney Drake (19 June 1948 – 25 November 1974) was an English singer-songwriter known for his acoustic guitar-based songs. He did not find a wide audience during his lifetime, but his work gradually achieved wider notice and recognit ...

and Martyn song, "Reckless Jane".Review
''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper A newspaper is a periodical publication containing written information about current events and is often typed in black ink with a white or gray background. Newspapers can cover a wide ...

''; published 17 April 2014, retrieved 22 April 14 The album featured bass by Matt Malley (

Counting Crows Counting Crows is an American rock band from San Francisco, California. Formed in 1991, the band consists of guitarist David Bryson, drummer Jim Bogios, vocalist Adam Duritz, keyboardist Charlie Gillingham, David Immerglück, bass guitarist ...

), drums by Victor Bisetti (

Los Lobos Los Lobos (, Spanish for "the Wolves") are an American rock band from East Los Angeles, California. Their music is influenced by rock and roll, Tex-Mex, country, zydeco, folk, R&B, blues, brown-eyed soul, and traditional music such as cum ...

), acoustic guitars by Mark Pavey, electric guitars by Jakob Nebel ( Livingston) and Michael Watts, and strings by Owain Roberts.

Discography

Singles

* "Babe, I'm Leaving You" (McGann) / "Wild About My Lovin'" (Trad. Arr. Joyce) (June 1965 with the Levee Breakers) * "Happy New Year" (Newman) / "Where The Good Times Are" (Martyn) (September 1966 as "Beverley") * "Picking Up The Sunshine" / " Me and My Gin" (1966 as "Beverley"; released 2017) * "

Museum A museum ( ; plural museums or, rarely, musea) is a building or institution that cares for and displays a collection of artifacts and other objects of artistic, cultural, historical History (derived ) is the systematic study and th ...

" ( Leitch) / "A Quick One For Sanity" (by "D. Cordell Tea Time Ensemble") (July 1967 as "Beverley")

Albums

*''

'' (February 1970 with John Martyn) *'' The Road to Ruin'' (November 1970 with John Martyn) * ''No Frills'' (1998) * ''The Phoenix and the Turtle'' (2014)

References

External links

Official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Martyn, Beverley English women singers English songwriters English folk singers Island Records artists 1947 births Living people