''Bless the Weather'' is a 1971 album by

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. ...

and marks his return as a solo artist having released two albums with his wife Beverley Martyn. The writing reflects their move from London to Hastings Old Town. 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 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—it is still regarded as "the standard by which everything else is measured." It was used by some of the ...

track' in "Glistening Glyndebourne".

Q magazine ''Q'' was a popular music magazine published monthly in the United Kingdom. It was founded in 1986 by broadcast journalists Mark Ellen and David Hepworth, who were presenters of the BBC television music series ''The Old Grey Whistle Test''. '' ...

chose ''Bless the Weather'' among the dozen essential folk albums of all time in 1999. According to Q the album was recorded in just three days (but Tony Reeves, the other bass player, has Monday 17 May, 6pm Sound Techniques and Friday 21 May 1pm to 6pm in his 1971 diary). In November 2007 ''Bless the Weather'' was included in a list by

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

newspaper entitled '1000 Albums to Hear Before You Die'. It was voted number 684 in

Colin Larkin Colin Larkin (born 1949) is a British writer and entrepreneur. He founded, and was the editor-in-chief of, the ''Encyclopedia of Popular Music'', described by ''The Times'' as "the standard against which all others must be judged". Along wit ...

All Time Top 1000 Albums ''All Time Top 1000 Albums'' is a book by Colin Larkin, creator and editor of the ''Encyclopedia of Popular Music''. The book was first published by Guinness Publishing in 1994. The list presented is the result of over 200,000 votes cast by the ...

3rd Edition (2000).

Track listing

All tracks composed by John Martyn except where indicated. #"Go Easy" – 4:15 #"Bless the Weather" – 4:29 #"Sugar Lump" – 3:43 #"Walk to the Water" – 2:49 #"Just Now" – 3:39 #"Head and Heart" – 4:54 #"Let the Good Things Come" – 3:05 #"Back Down the River" – 2:40 #"Glistening

Glyndebourne Glyndebourne () is an English country house, the site of an opera house that, since 1934, has been the venue for the annual Glyndebourne Festival Opera. The house, located near Lewes in East Sussex, England, is thought to be about six hundr ...

" – 6:30 #"

Singin' in the Rain ''Singin' in the Rain'' is a 1952 American musical romantic comedy film directed and choreographed by Gene Kelly and Stanley Donen, starring Kelly, Donald O'Connor, and Debbie Reynolds and featuring Jean Hagen, Millard Mitchell and Cyd Charis ...

" (

Nacio Herb Brown Ignacio Herbert "Nacio Herb" Brown (February 22, 1896 – September 28, 1964) was an American songwriter, writer of popular songs, movie scores and Broadway theatre music in the 1920s through the early 1950s. Amongst his most enduring work ...

Arthur Freed Arthur Freed (September 9, 1894 – April 12, 1973) was an American lyricist and Hollywood film producer. He won the Academy Award for Best Picture twice, in 1951 for ''An American in Paris'' and in 1958 for '' Gigi''. Both films were musicals. ...

) – 1:28 Bonus tracks #"Walk to the Water" (Take 3) (3:34) #"Bless the Weather" (Take 4) (5:37) #"Back Down the River" (Take 1) (2:44) #"Go Easy" (Take 1) (4:39) #"Glistening Glyndebourne" (Take 2) (7:48) #"Head and Heart" (Band Version) (10:17) #"May You Never" (Single Version) (2:45)

Personnel

*John Martyn - vocals, guitar, harmonica, keyboards * Richard Thompson - guitar *Smiley De Jonnes - percussion * Beverley Martyn - guitar, vocals *

Danny Thompson Daniel Henry Edward Thompson (born 4 April 1939) is an English multi-instrumentalist best known as a double bassist. He has had a long musical career playing with a large variety of other musicians, particularly Richard Thompson and John Mart ...

double bass The double bass (), also known simply as the bass () (or #Terminology, by other names), is the largest and lowest-pitched Bow (music), bowed (or plucked) string instrument in the modern orchestra, symphony orchestra (excluding unorthodox addit ...

Tony Reeves Anthony Reeves (born 18 April 1943, New Eltham, South East London) is an English bass guitarist/contrabassist, noted for his "distinctive and complex bass sound" and use of electronic effects. Career As a teenager Reeves learned orchestral doub ...

bass guitar The bass guitar, electric bass or simply bass (), is the lowest-pitched member of the string family. It is a plucked string instrument similar in appearance and construction to an electric or an acoustic guitar, but with a longer neck and ...

*Ian Whiteman - keyboards *Roger Powell - drums ;Technical *Steve Mayberry - engineer *Visualeyes - design, photography

References

External links

The John Martyn Website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bless The Weather John Martyn albums 1971 albums Albums produced by John Wood (record producer) Island Records albums Albums produced by John Martyn