The John Martyn Project’s first album was one of our Albums of the Year in 2025. The six expert musicians who comprise the occasional collective captured the energy and innovation of their long-standing live show and put it on disc, providing an exquisite rendition of songs that sound great with a rapt audience in front of them.
For The John Martyn Project Volume 2, the band has expanded their vista and ambition, taking the listener on a journey through a wider range of Martyn’s capabilities, but, much more challengingly, they attempt to capture the moods of a man well-known for his extremes of emotion. It is an amazing journey.
The album opens in the most laid-back way possible. After Chris Blackwell sent him to Jamaica to try to curb some of his habits, Martyn came back with not just some new musical ideas, courtesy of his friendship with Lee “Scratch” Perry, but also with a new cocktail of chemicals to inspire or hinder him, depending on the time of the day. Island Records also came up with some innovative ideas (using the equipment and techniques available in 1977), such as recording outdoors at night. The result was the wonderful album One World, which was highly influential on the British trip-hop movement. JMP captures the album’s mood and musicianship in “Small Hours,” adding atmosphere to the words without needing roosting geese and passing trains, and that track rolls gracefully into the title track of the original album. The songs are beautifully done, and represent something that could not be done as effectively live, except perhaps with the most passive (stoned?) audience, which not all venues can provide.
Having calibrated the mood and music to one end of Martyn’s vast spectrum, the album continues a journey through Martyn’s themes in his early folk period, with “Fairy Tale Lullaby.” Mystical, unthreatening and drawing on arcane themes. The band’s extensive knowledge of folk music shines through.
Martyn was capable of writing beautiful love songs, although whether he was capable of love is a matter for conjecture. “Go Down Easy” is one of his greatest love songs, which contains one of the most beautiful lines in pop music. The version here does indeed curl around you like a fern in the spring. So far, there has been little musical or emotional dissonance, but the first hint of what is to come appears at the end of this track.
Martyn’s musical and personal relationship with Beverley Kutner led to a pair, full of wholesome tales of domesticity by two peers, and the title track “Road to Ruin” allows the band and singers to harmonize musically and emotionally.
John and Beverley Martyn’s musical relationship was rent asunder, partially by a label that felt that the woman in the couple was holding back the male. How very ’70s(!). Although their personal relationship did continue for some time, there were inevitable stresses when a man of uncurbable habits and emotions was apart from his wife and children. Whilst the mood of this version of “One Day Without You” is relatively upbeat, the tone of the lyrics is different, noting that separation can lead to a loss of control, with all the meanings that implies.
This sets the mood for the final pair of songs, where the darkest sides of Martyn’s moods are captured. The first of these, “I’d Rather Be The Devil,” captures Martyn’s dissatisfaction with the world in general, in that it would not mold itself to the needs he had at any one time. It hints that he is disappointed by his urges to be nice and kind. They are the lyrics of a misanthrope, and the view of women as feckless would not cause anyone to deny charges of misogyny in Martyn. Here, JMP does not cope as well with the material. Fundamentally, they do not have the anger and hate for the world that Martyn had, and this shows through in the rendition.
Martyn was frequently angry with the world, but sometimes he was angry with specific individuals. His 1986 “John Wayne” captures his indignation that an ex-Manager had let him down in some way (Martyn led down all of those around him on many occasions). It captures rage in musical form. JMP copes much better with this. As jobbing musicians, they probably have lots of people that they can aim their ire at, even if they don’t hate the whole world. The singer for this track, Blythe Pepino, could have an extra level of rage, being a woman in the music industry. Perhaps she went “Method” by getting tanked up on whisky before the recording, as Martyn did to ensure that the full range of his anger was captured. JMP do an excellent, and convincing, job of musicianship and righteous annoyance.
Overall, it is quite a journey from spaced-out harmony with the world to anger with all of it, but The John Martyn Project Volume 2 is a wonderful musical trip.
