Beverley Martyn (born Beverley Kutner 24 March 1947) is a British

folk Folk or Folks may refer to: Sociology *Nation *People * Folklore ** Folk art ** Folk dance ** Folk hero ** Folk horror ** Folk music *** Folk metal *** Folk punk *** Folk rock ** Folk religion * Folk taxonomy Arts, entertainment, and media * Fo ...

singer, songwriter and guitarist. At various times, she has worked with

John Martyn Iain David McGeachy (11 September 1948 – 29 January 2009), known professionally as John Martyn, was a British 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. Hel ...

Jimmy Page James Patrick Page (born 9 January 1944) is an English musician and producer who achieved international success as the guitarist and founder of the Rock music, rock band Led Zeppelin. Page began his career as a studio session musician in Lo ...

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 folk ...

, 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 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" (1969), which ...

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-songwriter who was lead singer of the British folk rock band Fairport Convention. She has been described as " guably the pre-eminent British folk-rock sin ...

. She appeared in the photograph on the album sleeve of

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

'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 in ...

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

Early life and career

Martyn was born near

Coventry Coventry ( or rarely ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands (county), West Midlands county, in England, on the River Sherbourne. Coventry had been a large settlement for centurie ...

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

jug band A jug band is a musical band, band employing a jug (instrument), 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, washbo ...

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 Single may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * Single (music), a song release Songs * "Single" (Natasha Bedingfield song), 2004 * "Single" (New Kids on the Block and Ne-Yo song), 2008 * "Single" (William Wei song), 2016 * "Single", by ...

. "Babe I'm Leaving You", which was released on the

Parlophone Parlophone Records Limited (also known as Parlophone Records and Parlophone) is a 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 1923 as the Parloph ...

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 w ...

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

b-side The A-side and B-side are the two sides of phonograph record, vinyl records and Compact cassette, cassettes, and the terms have often been printed on the labels of two-sided music recordings. The A-side of a Single (music), single usually ...

"Where The Good Times Are"),

written Writing is the act of creating a persistent representation of language. A writing system includes a particular set of symbols called a ''script'', as well as the rules by which they encode a particular spoken language. Every written language ...

Randy Newman Randall Stuart Newman (born November 28, 1943) is an American singer, songwriter, arranger, pianist, composer, conductor and orchestrator. He is known for his non-rhotic Southern American English, Southern-accented singing style, early America ...

, on which she was accompanied by

John Paul Jones John Paul Jones (born John Paul; July 6, 1747 – July 18, 1792) was a Scottish-born naval officer who served in the Continental Navy during the American Revolutionary War. Often referred to as the "Father of the American Navy", Jones is regard ...

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

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 musician. He has sold more than 100 million records and has more than two billion st ...

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. The single was released in April 1967. During that period she was taught the guitar by the folk guitarist

, 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 emerged from the British folk scene in early 1965 and subsequently scored multiple international hit singles ...

and produced by

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, Proc ...

, was released in 1967. Closely involved with the folk scene at the time, she met

Paul Simon Paul Frederic Simon (born October 13, 1941) is an American singer-songwriter known for his solo work and his collaborations with Art Garfunkel. He and Garfunkel, whom he met in elementary school in 1953, came to prominence in the 1960s as Sim ...

who invited her to

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

. On the

Simon & Garfunkel Simon & Garfunkel were an American folk rock duo comprising the singer-songwriter Paul Simon and the singer Art Garfunkel. They were one of the best-selling music acts of the 1960s. Their most famous recordings include three US number-one sing ...

album An album is a collection of audio recordings (e.g., music) issued on a medium such as compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl (record), audio tape (like 8-track cartridge, 8-track or Cassette tape, cassette), or digital distribution, dig ...

Bookends A bookend is an object tall, sturdy, and heavy enough that is placed at either end of a row of upright books to support or buttress them. Heavy bookends—made of wood, bronze, marble, and even large geodes—have been used in libraries, sto ...

'', 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 16-18, 1967, at the Monterey County Fairgrounds in Monterey, California. The festival is remembered for the first major American appearances by the Jimi Hendrix Ex ...

on 16 June 1967, as did Simon & Garfunkel.

With John Martyn

In 1969, she met John Martyn, whom she later married. As a duo they issued two albums, '' Stormbringer!'' 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 Jamaica by Chris Blackwell, Graeme Goodall, and Leslie Kong in 1959, and was eventually sold to PolyGram in 1989. Island and A&M Records, another ...

. 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 Newspaper#Daily, daily Newspaper#National, national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its modern name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its si ...

'', 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, owing heavily to her husband's alcoholism and abuse. 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 as Fatboy Slim, is an English musician and DJ who helped popularise the big beat genre in the 1990s. His music makes extensive use of samples from eclectic genres, combined ...

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. He was the lead singer and lyricist of the rock band Led Zeppelin from its founding in 1968 until their breakup in 1980. Since then, he has had a successful solo ca ...

and various members of

Pentangle Pentangle may refer to: *Pentagon, a five-sided polygon *Pentagram, a five-pointed star drawn with five straight strokes *Pentangle (band), a British folk rock band ** ''The Pentangle'' (album), a 1968 album by Pentangle *Miss Pentangle, a character ...

, amongst others.Bert Jansch Celebration
''

The Observer ''The Observer'' is a British newspaper published on Sundays. First published in 1791, it is the world's oldest Sunday newspaper. In 1993 it was acquired by Guardian Media Group Limited, and operated as a sister paper to ''The Guardian'' ...

''; 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 and musician. An accomplished acoustic guitarist, Drake signed to Island Records at the age of twenty while still a student at the University of Cambridg ...

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

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

''; 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 the San Francisco Bay Area, California. Formed in 1991, the band consists of rhythm guitarist David Bryson, drummer Jim Bogios, vocalist Adam Duritz, keyboardist Charlie Gillingham, David Immergl� ...

), drums by Victor Bisetti (

Los Lobos Los Lobos (, Spanish for "the Wolves") is a Mexican American rock group, 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 ...

), 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 is an institution dedicated to displaying or Preservation (library and archive), preserving culturally or scientifically significant objects. Many museums have exhibitions of these objects on public display, and some have private colle ...

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

Albums

*'' Stormbringer!'' (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 women songwriters English folk singers Island Records artists 1947 births Living people