Jethro Tull’s Martin Barre

By Kevin Wildman One of the most famous and popular bands in Classic Rock was Jethro Tull. Formed in 1967, the band started out performing a mixture of blues-rock and jazzfusion. Later on they would incorporate a more rock sound into their music. “This Was” is the first album released by Jethro Tull. It was released in 1968. The original members were Ian Anderson (vocals, flute, piano, mouth organ), Mick Abrahams (guitar, vocals), Glen Cormick (bass) and Clive Bunker (drums). By the time the band recorded their second album “Stand Up,” in 1969, Mick Abrahams had been replaced by Martin Barre, and that’s were this story really begins. With over 20 albums to their credit, the only two constants on those albums were Ian Anderson and Martin Barre.

Throughout the years, Jethro Tull’s music evolved so quickly. While This Was and Stand Up were very close in sound, the albums Benefit, Aqualung, and Thick As A Brick changed quite drastically from album to album. This continued on through the end of Jethro Tull. Every album was an adventure and a new direction. Martin explains the changes as just growing musically. “ I guess we were learning a lot. We were touring continuously listening to other bands, listening to music that was playing and I think in the early days of all those bands out there, we were learning how to play. I think there’s a lot of naivete in the musicianship. It was sort of raunchy and raw and it worked because of that. Everybody just wants you to play better and they wanted to listen to other musicians and see and hear what they were doing, and pick up tips and ideas and inspiration. I guess we were learning a lot. We were touring, so it’s a real steep learning curve in the 70s and I guess that explains why we sort of just went crazy with the music writing, with the direction we took, but it didn’t seem unnatural. It just sort of it seemed that it was a totally normal direction. We were aware that we were sort of giving the fans a bit of a ride for their money, you know, where the music was going, but we were having fun and we found it exciting. And we hope that translated into what we were recording.”

Martin still carries on this approach with his solo career as he moves from album to album. “That ‘s always been the way that I feel and thing about music and I carried that through into what I do. I like to start from scratch. Every album… every CD… we just start at O and build it up. I hate repetition and even when we’re playing concerts, we’ll change the set… even in the middle of a tour. I think change is healthy. I wouldn’t say that people expected that, but Tull fans were always very flexible in that way. They heard our music and they knew that they never knew what was going to come next, but they sort of forgave us for things that they did not like, and they were really happy when we did something they did like. They never knew what was gonna come and I like that about music. I don’t want everything to be predictable or retro... all the same. You know, I mean all those adjectives. I hate them all

Jethro Tull’s Martin Barre Releases 50 Years Of Jethro Tull

and maybe that’s the way I’ve approached the 50th Anniversary CD. I just wanted to do tracks that weren’t shortcuts to doing something quick and easy. I wanted to put a lot of thought and a lot of emotion into what I did. Otherwise it would mean nothing.”

In fact, one cannot really think about Jethro Tull without thinking about the unbelievable guitar-work presented by Martin Barre on those albums. Martin would remain with the band until the band’s untimely in one day and announced to the other members of Jethro Tull that he was going to ‘call it a day’ and disband Tull. Needless to say, that was perplexing to Martin and the remaining members, but they all parted and went their separate direction.

After the confusion of this decision diminished, Martin knew that there was only one course of action for him. He would continue on with his solo career. In 1994 Martin had released his first solo album, A Trick Of Memory. Another couple of solo albums, The Meeting (1996) and Stage Left (2003) followed that up. At the time of these releases, Martin had no inclination to leave Jethro Tull at all. That was as much his band as Ian Anderson’s, although Ian had been their first. It didn’t take long for Martin to hit the road and start performing again as a solo act. Since then he has released several more

demise in 2011. In 2011 Ian Anderson came solo albums, including Away With Words (2013), Order of Play (2014), Back To Steel (2015), and Roads Less Traveled (2018). All of those albums were received with great enthusiasm by his fans and sold well.

Now Martin Barre is back with a new album, however this one is a return to his roots… a return to Jethro Tull, his one true love. Face it folks, Tull wouldn’t have been the Tull we all grew to love without Martin Barre. It would have been different and it would have sounded different. Last year Martin Barre re-recorded several songs that he always loved during his Jethro Tull days and has released the album as a 2-CD project called MLB - 50 Years of Jethro Tull. The first CD or album in this two-album set was

50 Years Of Jethro Tull

continued from previous page recorded ‘live’ at the Factory Underground album seemed to favor Stand Up and This studio in Norwalk, New York. The second Was predominately, the acoustic versions half of the album was an acoustic studio leaned heavily on Aqualung. “It wasn’t version of Jethro Tull songs and was recorded planned that way,” says Martin. “The studio in Martin’s home studio. This album contains album was the 4-piece Martin Barre Band, 24 Jethro Tull classics that range from the and we just play music that sort of sounds first album, This Was through 1991’s Catfish heavy and strong and people really react to it. Rising. They are all songs that Martin loves We’re a rock band in the old-fashioned sense. performing and he does a fantastic job at with We’re a touring band. We sort of live the new arrangements and his own indisput- together… play together… eat together, and able stamp on them. we like to sort of rock out together on stage as much as we can. It’s a great band and I For the recording of MLB - 50 Years of think the heavier material and the guitarJethro Tull, Martin recorded both in the driven stuff comes from the earlier days United States and his native country of anyway so we sort of leaned in that direcEngland. The project started out here in the tion.” United States at The Factory Underground as Martin explains. “Well, The Factory It was interesting to see that there were Underground is a sort of very cool place in several songs from the pre-Martin Barre era Norwalk New York State. We did a few album, This Was. Those songs are “My rehearsals there. It’s a facility that has recording, a small stage for an audience and it has TV recording facilities. We got quite involved with them and we had a couple of days off on a US tour and that I wanted to start on this album, so we booked into a two day session, but essentially, the first day we did everything. Disc one is recorded really in one day and it’s live, no vocals in a booth. We just set up the back line, and we just wanted to sound really authentic. I didn’t want a big studio album with those tracks. I wanted it to sound as if we’re doing a gig. It’s a cool place to record and it was fun to do. Then I came back to the U.K. and we did the studio tracks at my studio in Devon and brought the girls into sing the acoustic songs. This too is more the sort of quieter side of Tull, but in my mind the two sides always work hand-inhand. We always did acoustic segments with electric. There’s always that sort of dynamic between the two.”

The song choices on the albums were very interesting. While the “live” part of the 68 Rock and Blues International • December 2020 Sunday Feeling,” “Love Story,” and “Song For Jeffrey.” As Martin explains, this was not an issue with him, he always enjoyed playing those songs. “That’s not an issue with me,” says Martin, “I just make a judgement on the song and I’m not particularly highlighting what I did in Tull. I just love the history. It was my celebration of having 50 years in this music and the debt that I owe fans for enabling me to be there and play guitar for so long. So yeah, I didn’t really think too hard about what I’m playing and my choices are pretty simple. If it sounds great on stage and it’s bluesy and it’s rock and it’s heavy, and it’s got a great tempo and a lot of guitar playing in them, then I’m going to do it.”

Also included on the ‘live’ section of the album are two songs from the Benefit album. Those are “Nothing To Say” and “Teacher.” “In actual fact,” Martin tells us, “I often quote that as my favorite album. On Stand Up we were treading lightly. We weren’t really sure on how people were going to react to the music, because before Stand Up, Tull was a blues band. So people had to react to the new direction we were going in. It was a bit nervous and anxious, but we had such great success with it. We came back from the United States and we did U.K. tours with it and then we went and did Benefit. We had that much more confidence in what we were doing and it was a really fun album to play. So, for me, I have a really good feeling about Benefit as a period of time in Tull’s history and we play songs off that album as well and that will continue to.”

Although it may seem that there’s no rhyme or reason for the tracking order of these songs or the selection, Martin tells us that there is a plan. For instance, on the ‘live’ segment, the choice from Aqualung is just one song, “Hymn 43.” “ I like the song, and that chord progression,” explains Martin “A lot of bands did it. Cream did it famously. It’s just sort of very much of that era. We started playing it on stage because Tull finished in 2011, and we’d never played “Hymm 43” for probably 30 or 40 years. I just thought we’re here and we need to give

that one an airing and so the Martin Barre Band played it. It sounded great. It was just like a real straight-ahead Rock track… really simple, really great tempo. It just works as a live track. That’s why it’s there.”

Also on the ‘live’ section is “Sealion” off of the War Child album. Martin tells us that he picked it because, “It’s quirky. I just like to be really going the direction that people don’t expect, so again Tull when we were together, didn’t play it. We chose the “War Child” album and played it, but then it sort of got buried and never resurrected again. I thought, I know it’s got a great riff. It’s really so weird, but it’s weird and wonderful. So again, you know, I want to do it. I want to play it and it sounded good. You know, you just have to make the cut by virtue of it being a good piece of music to play.”

When Martin set out to do a 50 year retrospective on Jethro Tull, he didn’t want to just slap a few songs on a disc and send it out, he wanted something special for the fans, as he explains. “ I’ve seen bands, including Tull, put out sort of quite meaningless ‘best of’ albums and compilations and they just sort of repackaged old tracks and not even remixed them. I just think that’s not very meaningful. That’s not very thoughtful. And I never want to be part of that mindset. To me everything’s got to be re-recorded, revisited, fresh, straight off the shelf. I just want to give them their due musically.”

When it comes to the acoustic studio tracks on Disc two of the album, there’s quite an interesting combination of songs on it. Four of the eleven songs on it come from Aqualung, and the others come from Minstrel In The Gallery, Catfish Rising, Crest Of A Knave, Stormwatch, This Was, Stormwatch, Under Wraps, and Crest Of A Knave. Production on these is exquisite and the vocals are fantastic. The way the songs have been re-envisioned is unbelievable. “I think that’s when the acoustic songs were really at their peak and I think Ian’s songwriting really was at its best in the acoustic material. They’re just beautifully formed. Lyrically and musically that they’re just lovely things and so when I started looking at them and I just picked out some of the acoustic songs, I’ve always really liked. There’s a few that there wasn’t space for now. I love “Reasons For Waiting” and “Sossity.” There’s a lot of material, but you just got to pick out a few things that you think represent all of those years. The girls had never heard any of these songs and Alex and Becca knew nothing about Jethro Tull, so I played them these songs, and they’re young kids and they love them. They just thought that’s a great song and then straight away, they sang them with such conviction. And I love what they do to them. It just refreshes the songs and makes them really like new. I love what they do.”

Some of the songs picked out for this album were picked out because Martin felt that it would also help spotlight the other performers on the album. One might look at the song choice and wonder, ‘why this one, and why not that one.’ It’s a tough decision for Martin to make. Just how do you put the acoustic work of one of the greatest bands in courtesy of Martin Barre and the Martin history with over 20 albums to its credit on Barre Band. just one album? It’s virtually impossible. Martin tells us, “I can’t give all the reasons. I Track listings and albums they are just picked out things I really like. They from: work well. They gave everybody a bit of attention. I wanted the girls to be up front on Disc 1 - “Live At The Factory the CD because they’re an important part of Underground” my life. I wanted Dan’s vocals to have real frontline attention. It’s a difficult decision, My Sunday Feeling - This Was but there will always be what I didn’t do and For A Thousand Mothers - Stand Up that’s infinite, almost infinite. It’s impossible, Hymn 43 - Aqualung but I just I’m happy with what I chose and I Love Story - This Was stand by them and I apologize for things I Sealion - War Child didn’t do.” Song For Jeffrey - This Was Back To The Family - Stand Up Yes, it’s going to be inevitable. The Nothing To Say - Benefit process for selecting songs for this great re- Hunting Girl - Songs From The Wood imagining of Tull songs had to be a daunting Teacher - Benefit challenge for Martin, but the results on this Steel Monkey - Crest Of A Knave two-disc set is fantastic. It really is a great Nothing Is Easy - Stand Up selection of songs filled with old favorites New Day Yesterday - Stand Up and some of the more obscure ones as well. “Well,” says Martin, “it’s an impossible Disc 2 - Acoustic choice, but this is an enjoyable one. It’s nice to have too much material to select from, Wond’ring Aloud - Aqualung rather than too little.” Someday The Sun Won’t Shine This Was This album is really a gem for Jethro Life Is A Long Song - Aqualung Tull fans. It’s another chance to revisit old Cheap Day Return - Aqualung favorites with a new twist on them, an Under Wraps - Under Wraps unbelievable chance that most bands or One White Duck - Minstrel In The musicians don’t offer. There are a total of 24 Gallery great Jethro Tull songs on this two-disc set Still Loving You Tonight - Catfish that will definitely take you on a trip down Rising memory lane. For new listeners it will be an The Waking Edge - Crest Of A Knave incentive to go out and start buying that Home - Stormwatch Jethro Tull catalog that you were unaware of. Locomotive Breath - Aqualung I can’t stress enough about what a great Slow Marching Band - The Broad collection of songs this is. Go out and pick it sword And The Beast up today and discover your inner Jethro Tull, December 2020 • Rock and Blues International 69

Crawling Spider: A Tribute To Mike Montgomery Vol.1 - The LA Sessions

By Kevin Wildman Tony Braunagel, Terry Wilson-Slesser and One of the most unique releases that Mike Montgomery. Basically, the nucleus of we’ve encountered this year has got to be the Back Street Crawler was filled with members album, Crawling Spider: A Tribute To Mike of a band from Houston, TX called Bloontz. Montgomery Vol.1 - The LA Sessions. The Those members were Mike Montgomery, album is a touching tribute produced by Tony Braunagel, and Terry Wilson. Terry Mike’s son, Marlon Montgomery. Mike Wilson-Slesser was from an English band Montgomery was the keyboardist and chief called Beckett. Bloontz initially moved from songwriter in a band that some of you might Houston to England to join Kossoff in the have heard of, Back Street Crawler. To new project. refresh your memories, Back Street Crawler was the band that former Free guitarist Paul Sadly, Mike Montgomery passed away Kossoff formed after leaving Free. The band in 1991 after a long battle with lung cancer. consisted of Paul Kossoff, Terry Wilson, This album pays homage to Mike Montgom70 Rock and Blues International • December 2020 ery and his talented writing abilities. This album contains 15 tracks, which feature reinterpretations of songs from the Back Street Crawler days along with songs from Mike’s R&B band, Rough House. And believe it or not, Mike Montgomery, also performs on some of these songs. Some of the songs on this a album are demos that Mike had put together, but had never been published. Marlon has a selection of those and they have been added to this release as well.

musicians to reinterpret his father’s songs on this release. Among them are John “Rabbit” Bundrick (keyboardist for The Who), Johnny Lee Schell (Eric Burdon, Bonnie Raitt), Robbie Wyckoff (lead vocalist from Roger Waters - The Wall Tour), Billy Watts (John Mayall, Coco Montoya), Clive Edwards (UFO, Pat Travers, Uli Jon Roth), Teresa James (Eric Burdon, Bonnie Raitt, Walter Trout & more), Bill Leverty (Firehouse), and Jimmy Kunes (Humble Pie, Cactus, Savoy Brown), not to mention former Back Street Crawler members Tony Braunagel, Terry Wilson, and Terry Wilson-Slesser. Songs covered by these artists on this record include “Survivor,” “Rock & Roll Junkie,” “It’s A Long Way To The Top,” “Stealing My Way,” “Jason Blue,” and “All The Girls Are Crazy,” which were all featured on the Back Street Crawlers album, The Band Plays On.” Also contributing a song to this compilation is the to name a few. Other musicians include legendary Omar & The Howlers, who Brian Robertson and Scott Graham from Thin perform Mike’s song, “Just A Song Of Lizzy, Jimmy Bain from Rainbow and Dio, America.” In fact, songs like “It’s A Long Paul Thompson from Roxy Music and Way Down To The Top” and “Jason Blue” Concrete Blonde, and Mike Montgomery. As was written for Mike’s previous band, you can see from this list, it was quite an Bloontz. unbelievable list of performers. And, by the way, you’re going to just love these demos. However, the crowning jewels on this They rock!!! release are the recently discovered demos of Mike Montgomery that Marlon found. These “Those tracks were from my father’s songs are strictly unbelievable and feature a solo album,” explains Marlon. “After Back cast of characters that would make any Street Crawler he had recorded some tracks musician blush. Now hold on to you socks as in New York and London with the guys he we read this list of performers off to you. used to hang out with. A couple of years ago The six demo songs included on this release I came across some quarter inch demo tapes feature performances from Grammy Award with these songs on them and I thought I’d winning guitarist Bob Kulick, who has like to add them onto the album as bonus worked with KISS, Meat Loaf, Alice Cooper, Michael Bolton, Lou Reed, and W.A.S.P., just continued on next page December 2020 • Rock and Blues International 71

Mike Montgomery

continued from previous page

material.” approached to replace Ian Hunter as front man in Mott The Hoople, but instead As a matter of fact, the bonus songs on relocated to England to join Paul Kossoff in the album came from a variety of places. Back Street Crawler. After leaving Back Besides the ones that Marlon had come Street Crawler, he recorded a solo album with across, one of Mike’s former producers in members of Meatloaf, Thin Lizzy, Blood, New York had some tapes that he passed on Sweat, & Teas, and more. Mike then moved to Marlon and Mike’s second wife Mary back to New York where he found himself Montgomery also passed on some tapes to immersed in a multitude of projects with Marlon as well. Assisting Marlon on this people like Johnny Winter, Roy Buchanan, plethora of tapes that he had acquired was Rick Derringer and more. He then went on to Terry Wilson. “Terry Wilson,” continues form his own outfit, Rough House, which Marlon, “is not only a great bass player and played a mixture of R&B, Rock, and Blues. songwriter, but he is also a great mixing and mastering engineer. He took all these tapes I Marlon Montgomery is extremely sent him from different sources and different pleased and happy with the release of tapes… the reels and the cassette tapes, and Crawling Spider: A Tribute To Mike Monthe worked his magic and somehow he gomery Vol.1 - The LA Sessions. It took him removed the noise and got them all to fit about 5 years to put this project together. together. I don’t think they even sound out of Marlon was just a freshman in high school place from the newly recorded tapes.” when his dad died of lung cancer. At the present time, Marlon is older than his father Mike Montgomery has had a really was when he passed away. This album is distinguished career. He formed his first titled Vol. 1, and there is a reason for that. It band at the age of 15, and from there he just seems that Marlon has some more material kept moving up the ladder of success. He that he’d like to include on a Vol. 2 of this joined the band Bloontz in Houston, Texas, same project. and later moved to New York where he became Johnny Nash’s musical director. Some of these tracks on Crawling Soon he became a hot guy on the studio Spider: A Tribute To Mike Montgomery Vol.1 session circuit and found himself recording - The LA Sessions were recorded in Tony with David Bowie, Lulu, Blood, Sweat & Braunagel’s home studio. Tony and Terry Tears, and more acts. In 1975 he was even Wilson helped Marlon produce the album. 72 Rock and Blues International • December 2020 Most of the new tracks were recorded live there with the keyboard parts being added later because of logistics. On several of the songs they were going to have John “Rabbit” Bundrick perform on them, and he was based in London, so his parts were added later.

When it came to re-recording the older material from the Kossoff days, Marlon took his wish list of personnel and song requests for the album to Tony and Terry and presented it to them. “I brought the long list that I though it would be great to do from the different time periods and part of the challenge was trying to narrow down the list. Of course, I’m so close to it, I wanted to do all the songs in the catalog. So Terry and Tony helped me out there in picking the songs that would best work together and still honor the original tunes with a little modern twist on them. They definitely helped out there. They were fantastic. Not only are they great players, they’re great producers. Once we picked the songs, we had Tony and Terry on drums and bass. Then we started going through who would best fit each song.”

“Of course we wanted to use Teresa,” continues Marlon “We needed to know who would make the most sense on vocals. We knew Mark Campbell from Jack Mack And the Heart Attack. He would bring his unique voice of rough rock and roll to “Rock And Roll Junkie.” Robbie Wyckoff can sing anything. The clarity of his vocals was just a perfect fit. And we rounded out our house band with Johnny Lee Schell. He’s an incredible guitar player and he plays slide on “99 Days. Billy Watts was the other guitar player. His solo on “Survivor” is incredible. We were also able to bring in Adam MacDougall. I’m a huge Black Crowes fan, so it was great to have him. Of course, Rabbit played a big part in this. Terry and Tony reached out to him and brought him on board as well. He’s a genius on the keys.”

As I said before, Marlon is extremely proud of this project, and I wouldn’t be surprised if he actually gets Vol. 2 off the ground soon. He certainly has the stamina and the drive to do it. Personally, I think that if Mike is looking down from Heaven right now, he would just be knocked out at what his son has accomplished for him. It has truly been a labor of love for Marlon and I wish him the best in the follow-up to this album.

“I think the true testament to my dad is that these songs still hold up,” says Marlon. “That was one of the main reasons for releasing this album, besides just honoring my dad, these songs still hold up, they deserve to be out there.