40 Years of John Martyn - Ain't No Saint

John Martyn may not have been a saint, but he was touched by a heavenly sort of genius. His unique fusion of folk, blues, jazz and pop was only silenced by his passing in January 2009. A few months before his death, the singer/guitarist/songwriter summed up his amazingly productive career by releasing 40 Years of John Martyn - Ain’t No Saint, a four-disc collection featuring over 30 previously unheard recordings. Martyn’s evolution from British folkie to experimental jazz maverick and beyond is difficult to chronicle neatly — elements of his early work reappeared in his later efforts. Still, his maturation as an artist and a man can be traced from the quaint “Fairy Tale Lullaby” in 1968 through the eerie “Solid Air” in 1973 and the silken “One World” in 1977. Over the course of these tracks, Martyn’s vocal stylings and acoustic fretwork enter increasingly rarified territory, while his lyric confessions lay bear his dreams and sorrows. Worth special attention are haunting live versions of such seminal tunes as “Bless the Weather” and “Outside In,” as well as bracing performances recorded at the 2008 BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards featuring Led Zeppelin’s John Paul Jones.