FabricationsHQ - Putting the Words to the Music
  • Muirsical Thoughts, Muirsical News Last update: March 24th
  • Latest Articles (links)
  • Cruachan - The Living and The Dead
  • Elles Bailey - The Caves, Edinburgh
  • Knowing Your Shit... 2022 In Review
  • King Kraken - MCLXXX
  • Hayley Griffiths (February 2023)
  • Steve Hill (January 2023)
  • WinterStorm 2023 - Legends and Legacies Announcement
  • 2023 Reviews
  • 2023 Featured Album Reviews
    • Heavy Metal Kids - The Albums 1974-1976
    • Anchor Lane - Call This a Reality?
    • Doomsday Outlaw - Damaged Goods
    • Hayley Griffiths - Far From Here Hayley Griffiths Band - MELANIE
  • 2022 Reviews
  • 2022 Featured Album Reviews
    • Moon City Masters - The Famous Moon City Masters
    • Steve Hill - Dear Illusion
    • Kira Mac - Chaos is Calling
    • EBB - Mad & Killing Time
    • The Commoners - Find A Better Way
    • Rebecca Downes - The Space Between Us
    • Erja Lyytinen - Waiting For The Daylight
    • Chris Antonik - Morningstar
    • The Milk Men - Spin The Bottle
    • SiX BY SiX - SiX BY SiX
    • Jeff Berlin - Jack Songs
    • Keef Hartley Band - Sinnin' For You The Albums 1969-1973
    • Toby Lee - Icons Vol.1
    • Montrose - I Got The Fire : Complete Recordings 1973-1976
    • Orianthi - Live From Hollywood
    • Valeriy Stepanov Fusion Project - Album No. 2
    • Dan Reed Network - Let's Hear It For The King
    • Ali Ferguson - The Contemplative Power Of Water
    • Edgar Winter - Brother Johnny
    • Joe Satriani - The Elephants Of Mars
    • Dave Cureton - State Of Mind
    • Larry McCray - Blues Without You
    • Tears for Fears - Tipping Point
    • Kris Barras Band - Death Valley Paradise
    • Dan Patlansky - Shelter of Bones
    • Black Lakes - For All We've Left Behind
    • Wille & The Bandits - When The World Stood Still
    • LALU - Paint the Sky
    • Various Artists - Revolt Into Style 1979
  • 2021 Reviews
  • 2021 Featured Album Reviews
    • Dave Bainbridge - To The Far Away
    • Lachy Doley - Studios 301 Sessions
    • Mark Pontin Group - Kaleidoscope
    • The Mentulls - Recipe For Change
    • Plush - Plush
    • Wayward Sons - Even Up the Score
    • Pat Metheny - Side-Eye NYC (V1.IV)
    • Steve Hackett - Surrender Of Silence
    • Sweet Crisis - Tricks On My Mind
    • Amanda Lehmann - Innocence and Illusion
    • Chantel McGregor - Shed Sessions Volume One & Volume Two
    • Troy Redfern ...The Fire Cosmic!
    • NWOCR - Volume One
    • Jeff Kollman - East of Heaven
    • The Damn Truth - Now Or Nowhere
    • Dennis DeYoung - 26 East Vol 2
    • Mark Lettieri - Deep: The Baritone Sessions Vol 2
    • Reach - The Promise Of a LIfe
    • Jane Getter Premonition - Anomalia
    • Mason Hill - Against The Wall
    • Lyle Workman - Uncommon Measures
    • Robert Berry - 3.2 : Third Impression
    • Lifesigns - Altitude
    • Jason Bieler and The Baron Von Bielski Orchestra - Songs For The Apocalypse
  • 2020 Reviews
  • 2020 Featured Album Reviews
    • McCartney III
    • Gary Barlow - Music Played By Humans
    • Storm Warning - Different Horizons
    • Reb Beach - A View From The Inside
    • Lykantropi - Tales To Be Told
    • King King - Maverick
    • Jakko M Jakszyk - Secrets & Lies
    • Blue Öyster Cult - The Symbol Remains
    • Fish - Weltschmerz
    • Dyble Longdon - Between A Breath And A Breath
    • Jim Kirkpatrick - Ballad of a Prodigal Son
    • Abel Ganz - The Life of the Honey Bee & Other Moments of Clarity
    • Toby and the Whole Truth - Ignorance is Bliss (25th Anniversary Edition)
    • Everyday Heroes - A Tale of Sin & Sorrow
    • Skintrade - The Show Must Go On
    • Robert Jon & The Wreck - Last Light on the Highway
    • Pat Metheny - From This Place
    • Anchor Lane - Casino
  • Selected 2023 Gig Reviews...
    • The Wilson Brothers - Backstage at the Green, Kinross
  • Selected 2022 Gig Reviews...
    • WinterStorm Rock Weekender - Troon
    • Jack J Hutchinson - Bannermans, Edinburgh
    • Paul McCartney - Pyramid Stage, Glastonbury 2022
    • Daryl Hall - Ryman Auditorium, Nashville
    • Joe Bonamassa - SEC Armadillo, Glasgow
    • Dan Patlansky - Oran Mor, Glasgow
    • Eric Gales - Oran Mor, Glasgow
  • Selected 2021 Gig Reviews...
    • Sweet - The Garage, Glasgow
    • The Damn Truth - Now Or Nowhere Record Release Experiment Live
    • Anchor Lane - Lockdown Live, DreadnoughtRock, Bathgate
    • Laurence Jones - Live From Camden, Powerhaus, London
    • Joe Bonamassa - Austin City Limits, Live Stream
    • Todd Rundgren - Clearly Human Virtual Tour, "Pittsburgh"
  • Selected 2020 Gig Reviews...
    • Jared James Nichols - Garage G2, Glasgow
    • Oscar Cordoba Band - Blue Arrow, Glasgow
    • Rebecca Downes Band - The Ice Box, Glasgow
    • Ben Poole Trio - Room 2, Glasgow
    • Sensational Alex Harvey Experience - DreadnoughtRock, Bathgate
    • The Aristocrats - Liquid Rooms, Edinburgh
    • Fat Suit - Drygate, Glasgow
    • Francis Dunnery's It Bites - St Lukes, Glasgow
  • Selected 2019 Gig Reviews...
    • WinterStorm Rock Weekender IV - Troon
    • Hawkwind - 02 Academy, Glasgow
    • Opeth - SWG3 Galvanizers, Glasgow
    • Félix Rabin - Nice 'N' Sleazy Glasgow
    • Anchor Lane - G2, Glasgow
    • Stray - Backstage at the Green, Kinross
    • Danny Bryant - Backstage at the Green, Kinross
    • Talon - Pavilion Theatre, Glasgow
    • Lifesigns - Smiles of Musical Travel
    • A Whole Lotta Rock 3 - featuring Rattlesnake Tattoo, Prestwick
    • Chantel McGregor - Hard Rock Cafe Glasgow
    • Pete Way Band - Customs House Hotel, Greenock
    • Raintown and Katee Kross - Village Theatre, East Kilbride
    • Danny Vaughn - DreadnoughtRock, Bathgate
    • NR Rocks 2019 - DreadnoughtRock, Bathgate
    • Arran Rock 'N' Blues Fest 2019
    • Cheap Trick - 02 Academy, Glasgow
    • The Blind Lemon Gators - Tolboth, Stirling
  • Muirsical Conversations...
    • Rebecca Downes (December 2022)
    • Chris Antonik (November 2022)
    • Pat Travers (October 2022)
    • Robert Berry (August 2022)
    • JW-Jones (August 2022)
    • Mike Ross (July 2022)
    • Dan Patlansky - March 2022
    • Bernie Marsden (December 2021)
    • Robin George (November 2021)
    • Dennis DeYoung (June 2021)
    • Robert Berry (March 2021)
    • Dan Reed (February 2021)
    • Steve Hackett (January 2021)
    • John Verity (September 2020)
    • Steve Hackett (July 2020)
    • Gary Moat (March 2020)
    • Steve Hackett (October 2019)
    • Rebecca Downes (May 2019)
    • Ben Poole & Wayne Proctor (January 2019)
    • Dan Reed (November 2018)
    • Del Bromham (October 2018)
    • Brian Downey (September 2018)
    • Raintown - Paul Bain & Claire McArthur Bain (May 2018)
    • Hamilton Loomis (December 2017)
    • Alan Nimmo (October 2017)
    • Erja Lyytinen (September 2017)
    • Suzi Quatro (September 2017)
    • Biff Byford (August 2017)
    • Dan Patlansky (June 2017)
    • Graham Bonnet (May 2017)
    • Simon Thacker (April 2017)
    • Sari Schorr (March 2017)
    • Stevie Nimmo (February 2017)
    • Dan Reed (February 2017)
    • Adam Norsworthy (January 2017)
    • Colin James (December 2016)
    • John Lees (October 2016)
    • Sari Schorr (August 2016)
    • Mike Vernon (August 2016)
    • Wayne Proctor (July 2016)
    • Laurence Jones (April 2016)
    • Chantel McGregor (March 2016)
    • John Young (January 2016)
    • Michael Schenker (November 2015)
    • Martin Barre (October 2015)
    • Chris Norman (September 2015)
    • Joanne Shaw Taylor (August 2015)
    • Fee Waybill (July 2015)
    • Ian Anderson (June 2015)
    • John Lodge (June 2015)
    • John Lawton (May 2015)
    • Steve Hackett (May 2015)
    • Manny Charlton (April 2015)
    • Ben Poole (April 2015)
    • Alan Nimmo (February 2015)
    • Popa Chubby (December 2014)
    • Paul Young (July 2014)
    • Bernie Shaw (June 2014)
    • Lee Kerslake (December 2013)
    • Pat Travers (September 2013)
    • Steve Hunter (August 2013)
    • Joy Dunlop (March 2013)
    • Gwyn Ashton (Dec. 2012)
    • Greg Lake (October 2012)
    • Ned Evett (August 2012)
    • Steven Lindsay (July 2012)
    • Dave Cureton (June 2012)
    • Jon Anderson (May 2012)
    • Jeremey Frederick Hunsicker (March 2012)
    • Amy Schugar (Feb. 2012)
    • Robert Fleischman (November 2011)
    • Ivan Drever (Sep. 2011)
    • Michael Sadler (June 2011)
    • James Evans (April 2011)
    • Alyn Cosker (Nov. 2010)
    • Scott Higham (Nov. 2010)
    • Kevin Chalfant (Oct. 2010)
    • Francis Dunnery (Sep. 2010)
    • Duncan Chisholm (Aug 2010)
    • Barbara Rubin (July 2010)
    • Alan Reed (June 2010)
  • FabricationsHQ Q&As With...
    • Jeff Kollman - August 2021
    • Lyle Workman (March 2021)
    • Jason Bieler (February 2021)
    • Félix Rabin (February 2020)
    • Chantel McGregor (August 2019)
    • Greig Taylor (July 2019)
    • Adam Norsworthy (June 2019)
    • Erja Lyytinen (March 2019)
  • Muirsical Articles...
    • 2019AB?
    • The Fool Guitar - The Fool Story
    • Alex Harvey - Framed in Words. And pictures
    • Home of a Ramblin' Band (Allman Brothers Band Big House Museum)
    • Journey - That Time Forgot
    • KISS - Elder Statesmen, Elder Statement?
    • Phil Lynott - Remembering Pt. 3
    • Freddie Mercury - The Days of His Life
    • Gary Moore - Last Exit
    • Mott - Without any of the Hoople-la
    • Muirsical Six of the Best
    • Music Town: A Decade of the Darvel Music Festival
    • Pat Travers - The Forgotten Power Trio
    • Playing Tribute
    • Gerry Rafferty - Humblebum to Multi-Million Seller
    • Cliff Richard - The Rock and Roll Juvenile
    • Slade - Thanks For the Memories
    • The Sweet - A Cut Above the Rest
    • Talon - On Eagles Wings
    • Wild Horses - Thoroughbreds or also-rans?
  • A Personal Journey: Definitive Edition (eBook)
  • Steve Perry (vocalist): One in a Million (eBook)
  • A Writer's Muirsings...
    • A Writer's Muirsings: Introduction
    • Superbowl XLVII MVP: Beyoncé (February 2013)
    • Michael Jackson: The Alternative Verdict (Nov 2011)
    • True Colours (November 2010)
    • It's a New Language, Old Bean (October 2010)
    • Finger Pointing (July 2010)
    • Suffer the Little Children (April 2010)
    • Hey 'Banker', can you spare a dime? (February 2010)
  • Author Bio & Site Info
  • Contact FabricationsHQ
Melody and multi-styled blues rock
Muirsical Conversation with Martin Barre
Picture
As regards his part in the sound and sixty million record sales success of Jethro Tull and his role as right hand guitar man to Tull’s creative power Ian Anderson for some forty-three years, Martin Barre and his distinct, some would say genuinely unique, guitar style need absolutely no introduction.

Since the end of 2011 however, when Jethro Tull wound itself down and made a natural transition to Ian Anderson and band playing the music of Jethro Tull, Martin Barre has found himself in the strange yet exciting position of having to (re)introduce himself to the rock scene as a solo performer and with the Martin Barre Band.

While his first two post-Jethro Tull albums (Away With Words and Order of Play) featured a number of reinterpreted Tull songs, latest album Back to Steel is a true representation of where Martin Barre and the Martin Barre Band are now and where they are headed. It's also his best solo album to date.
​
Martin Barre spoke to FabricationsHQ at length about the album, its players and the importance of both as he reinvents himself for his post-Tull career.

There was also time however for the often-asked question of just what songs did he record with Paul McCartney, a look back to those early Jethro Tull days and the influences – or lack thereof – that led to that famous six-string sound and style.

But the highly respected guitarist and multi-instrumentalist started by making a pronouncement on a specifically named subject...     


​Ross Muir: I’d like to discuss the new album Back to Steel in a bit of detail but before we get started we need to clear something that’s been misreported – or more accurately mispronounced – for years.
Your surname – pronounced "Bar" or "Bar-ay?"

Martin Barre: Well, sort of both, because while the answer is it's pronounced "Bar" my grandad was French and the French version would have had the accent on it.
But I’m sure once my grandparents moved to England they would have got rid of that! [laughs]. 

RM: The title track of Back to Steel carries a great, bluesy melodic vibe and is the song that opens your strongest solo album to date.
This is also an album that makes a statement of just where you – and the Martin Barre Band – are today and where you are heading...

MB: That’s music to my ears because that was the idea behind the album; it’s great to hear a comment like that. I’m pleased that’s how the album hits you because that’s exactly what it was meant to do.

RM: And it does that extremely well because it’s a great collection of songs that encapsulate everything you’ve done in the past.
The varying songs styles also show off the number of strings you have to your bow – or more accurately your guitar.

MB: That’s such a really nice to thing to say; thank you.
Actually I’m stumped for words – if I agree with you I’ll come across as a little bit big-headed! [laughs]

RM: Actually I’m just agreeing with you – or putting the album in context against your own press release comment that it’s the "most important work" of your career.
So clearly it was going to be – indeed had to be – a really good one…

MB: It is my most important album to date, yes. I’ve been four years on my own, since Jethro Tull, and my own band has changed a little bit here and there over those years but the four of us in the line-up now work really well together. I also have two girl singers, Alex Hart and Elani Andrea, on the album.
Alex will be joining us on the road along with Rebecca Lang – that adds a little something nice on top, vocally.
So, yeah, it is an important album – it’s important for me, important for the band and important that I’m writing music for that band and going out there and playing it live.
That’s what I need to be doing because although I’ve got the Tull element in there – and that will always be there, to some degree – what’s really vital is that I’ve got my own identity...

RM: You’re also establishing the band’s identity with Back to Steel and each individual band member deserves a mention.
Dan Crisp is your singer and has been with you for a few years now; that seems to be the perfect partnership as regards Dan’s vocal and your songs…

MB: Dan’s great; he’s really matured in the last two or three years. We’ve done a lot of live shows together and Dan has just continued to get better – but now he has really come of age.

RM: Something I’ve noticed about Dan is while he has a bluesy soul to his voice that works well for your own material he also sings the Jethro Tull tracks you play very well. 
The original Tull songs have a quirky, very individual vocal and lyrical style that’s all Ian Anderson, but Dan does a great job on the Tull songs you record or perform.

MB: Dan such a great singer. I never tell Dan, when we are going to do a Tull song, to sing it like Ian.
That would be the last thing I would ever say but I do tell him to have a go at it, change the key if he needs, play with it and do something that he’s comfortable with.

So I leave him to his own devices although some lines do have to be pretty much on the button because there are some things you daren’t change! [laughs]. But generally there is a bit of leeway there.
With my own songs the lyrics were literally the last thing I did for the album so when Dan came in to the studio as the last part of the recording process he had no idea what he was going to be singing – not even what the vocal melody was!
He was really thrown in at the deep end but God bless him he worked hard and it all came good.


RM: And alongside Dan’s voice and your own multi-instrumentalism you have George Lindsay and my fellow Scot, Alan Thomson, as your rhythm section…

MB: That’s right. I’ve known George for about three years now. I have a small studio in the house for tracking the guitar and things like that but when we do drums and backing tracks we use a studio – that’s actually a farm – about twenty miles away from where live.
George lives near London but he was the studio’s go-to session drummer and when I was looking for a drummer the guys at the studio said "you’ve got to check this guy out."
Obviously I did and he’s just a fantastic player; he can play any style of music.
"Effortless" is the word that comes to mind because you’re never aware of him; he’s not a showman but he is there for you and he’s a great, core element of the band.
Then when the bass player I had been using had to leave Dave Pegg suggested Alan Thomson.
Dave knew Alan from his playing with Jacqui McShee’s Pentangle and Dave said to me "I think he’d be perfect for your band."
I knew Alan by name although I didn’t really know of him, but we met down in London and we got on really well. Alan came up and did a couple of sessions with us and he fitted in one hundred percent.
And, again, just a great musician.

RM: You’ve called Back to Steel "a blues rock album." While it’s certainly an album formed around the melodic side of that genre you also have a lot of light and shade plus four covers including the Jethro Tull songs Skating Away and Slow Marching Band.
Were the Tull tunes personal choices or simply songs you felt were good fits for the album?

MB: A bit of both. When we’re playing on stage I like to turn things around so my versions of Tull songs like Fatman and New Day Yesterday are really different from the originals; we also make them a lot heavier.
I had been thinking about replacing one of the ones we’d been doing for a while and about a year ago, while we were in the van heading to some gig, someone said to me "you should think about Skating Away."
So I started just thinking about the song and immediately I saw it as this straight-ahead, drum in straight fours song.
So I chose that one for the album as it’s a great song and because but I wanted to make it slightly different and have my own take on it.
That really that was going to be the only one but Slow Marching Band we had actually recorded about eighteen months earlier and had become a spare track.
I didn’t put it on the last album, Order of Play, because it wasn’t part of the live show and that album represented the Tull songs and blues numbers we were playing live at the time.
But every time I played our version of Slow Marching Band I really liked Dan’s vocals and, again, it’s just another great song – so I started to realise I really wanted to have this on an album!
I also wanted the CD to have a generous amount of music on it and I thought "well that’s as good a reason as any to have Slow Marching Band on the album!"

RM: From a personal point of view I’m delighted Slow Marching Band made it on to the album.
My favourite Jethro Tull album – by some long way – is Broadsword and the Beast and I’ve always been incredibly fond of Slow Marching Band.

MB: I loved it too; the keyboards Pete Vettese played on the original were beautiful.
Pete is such a great musician; on that song he had all these chord substitutions so I really took that track apart to make sure I got all those little nuances that he had put in.
Of course there are no keyboards on our version but I put a sort of pedal bass on it and added mandolin, bouzouki and lots of layers of guitars to emulate what Pete had done on the keyboards.
But, yeah, I really loved what Pete did with it on Broadsword.

RM: Beyond the blues rock and the Tull covers the "light and shade" I mentioned earlier starts by way of the lovely little vignette instrumentals Chasing Shadows and Calafel.
The latter, I would surmise, is a nod to the place in the Catalonia area of Spain?

MB: It is. The first time we had ever been abroad was in the fifties when my mum and dad took us all to Spain – and back then English people just didn’t go to Spain [laughs] – but it was a trip around that area and I just have such great memories of it.
And then, when we were over in Spain doing a Fan Convention – actually we did a couple of them – I was out doing my running, along a beach, and I came across this sign that said "Calafel."
I thought "Wow! That must be where we visited all those years ago!" and then later on the run I passed the hotel where we had stayed! And nothing had changed!
Anyway, it’s just such a lovely part of Spain that I thought I’d dedicate a piece on the album to it...
RM: Calafel contrasts with, yet complements, Hammer, the other instrumental on the album.
That’s a great little rock guitar piece that reflects back to your mid-nineties solo albums A Trick of Memory and The Meeting; both featured a number of instrumental tracks. 

MB: Those albums were primarily instrumental and my earlier solo bands did do a lot of instrumentals live. This band has probably done about half-a-dozen of my earlier instrumentals and while I still like them I’ve played them so much over the years I thought I really need to change things around or write some new ones. I like to think that if an audience comes to see us, within six months they will get a different set that includes some things that are markedly new.

RM: I think the other thing to mention is that while those first two albums we referenced are both good solo albums they are just that – solo albums.
Albums such as Order of Play and Back to Steel are more akin to Martin Barre Band projects…

MB: Yes; I want the band to be more involved and in fact I could have called this one Back to Steel by the Martin Barre Band.
And maybe I should have because in my mind they are vital to what I’m doing but it’s still early days for me, I’ve only been doing this for about four years, but they do have a very important part to play.
But it’s likely that the next one will be a "band" album, in every sense.
Picture
      While Martin Barre’s previous studio album, Order of Play, highlighted where the renowned guitarist
      and his band were at the time (presenting a selection of Jethro Tull classics and blues standards as
      performed live) the melodic light and shade of Back to Steel points to a very healthy blues rock future.

 
RM: Returning to the lighter side of the album you have the delightful medieval-meets-folk number You And I. It’s also a song that features vocals from Alex Hart and Elani Andrea, who you mentioned earlier.

MB: And finding Alex and Elani came from the same studio where I met George!
I had mentioned to the studio engineer James Bragg, who does all my stuff, that I wanted female vocals on Slow Marching Band and some other, similar things.
James said "you need to try working with Alex and Elani – they have separate bands but they also work and sing together really well." And that was it!
We put them in, they did all those lovely female backing vocals that are on the album but, funnily enough, I still hadn’t finished You And I. I was having a problem with the lyrics, they just weren’t sitting quite right.
I had been writing the song for Dan but as it was a love song – and the girls had been so good – I felt they deserved a bit more of the spotlight.
So I got them back in to sing it and I was so pleased I did because they did such a great job – on a song I really had almost scrapped!

RM: One of the two non-Tull covers on Back to Steel is Eleanor Rigby.
I assume the blues rock styled take on the Beatles classic is a nod to the time you spent working and recording with Paul McCartney
– whoever the hell he is…

MB: [laughs] It is, ish, but to be honest it’s more to do with the fact I grew up with The Beatles and they were always amazing to me. Even when I was at school I was playing their songs in a band – just like everyone else was [laughs] – I’ve loved their music for so long.
With Eleanor Rigby I had actually made an arrangement of it as an instrumental back in the Tull days and I was going to do it on stage with all these wacky chords [laughs]; but we never got round to it.
But I found the demo and started to work on it and made it into the version that is on Back to Steel.
It’s also a great song to do on stage; we’ve been playing that song live for about six months now and it works really well.

RM: The subject of working with Paul McCartney raises a Pub-Quiz type question that remains unanswered or continues to be answered with extreme uncertainty – just what tracks did you record with Paul?
For example I’ve seen it cited on official Martin Barre discographies that you played on Young Boy, which appeared on Paul’s Flaming Pie album. But you’re not anywhere near that track as far as I can "hear"…


MB: It’s possible though, because I did loads of stuff. I do know that on the Special Edition version of his Flowers in the Dirt album – the one that was only made available in Japan – I played on P.S. Love Me Do and one other, which I can’t remember [laughs].
But I really don’t know the answer myself without checking or playing through them all!

RM: I also recall a fairly obscure B-side of Paul’s, Atlantic Ocean, which is very rhythmic number clearly created or edited together in the studio.
You are sometimes credited as having appeared on that one; it certainly sounds like your guitar remarks.

MB: You know that one rings a bell; I’m going to have to look for that one but the answer is, still, that I really don’t know! [laughs]
The problem is I’ve played on a lot of peoples albums, and while they will often finish the album and send me a copy saying "thank you for what you did; here’s the finished product" – and those albums go straight to my little rack of CD’s – there are others where you never hear another thing from them! 
There are even some where I’ve said "did you like what I did?" and they’ll say "Oh, yeah, sorry – yes of course I do, I really love it!" But I’ve never heard it or been sent it! [laughs]
But a lot of it just gets lost, or crossed, in the wires.

RM: Bizarre as it sounds your best bet is probably to jump on to YouTube, enter your own name and find out just exactly what you've played on, and for whom...

MB: I guess I should! [laughs]. Now here’s one for you: have you heard of an album called Encores, Legends and Paradox?

RM: I have, yes – the Emerson, Lake and Palmer tribute album. You’re on that one?

MB: Yes, I’m on there with Doane Perry and James LaBrie on a great version of A Time and a Place.
But then it’s also a great album with some amazing people playing on it.
     

RM: Keeping to the subject of covers but returning to Back to Steel… you’ve dropped in a version of the Howlin’ Wolf classic Smokestack, or more accurately your take on it with a new lyric added.
A throwback nod to your early, blues band days around Birmingham?

MB: Yeah, it is to an extent but I always love playing the blues on stage; I’m always thinking of things to play that will really work well and are a little more "involved" – adding that little extra ingredient and taking it a step further, like Joe Bonamassa and Gary Moore. Or like Joe does and Gary did, sadly.
Smokestack was just an idea where I took the riff and wrote some more lyrics and added some more chords around it. We tried it out on stage for a while and it worked really well, so that’s how Smokestack ended up on the album.

RM: I’m glad it found a place on the album because not only has it got a great groove it took me back to those early days when so many bands were trying to make their way up the ladder and playing the blues. Birmingham especially had a vibrant scene; that must have been a great time…

MB: It was, yeah. There were lots of bands in Birmingham but there were also so many gigs in the sixties. When I left school and headed to college I was doing four or five gigs a week – we got paid rubbish [laughs] but it was still a gig. It was an amazing time but it will never happen again.

RM: No it most certainly will not; those days are long gone. Those those gigs you’re talking about – this would be around the time of Motivation who became Gethsemane who toured with Jethro Tull in 1968?

MB: Yes. Basically I’ve only ever been in two bands – the band you mentioned I was with for three years but they changed their name two or three times, and then Jethro Tull. For forty-three years!

RM: And the start of that forty-three year journey was when you auditioned for the band prior to their second album, Stand Up.
Was there any trepidation on your part as regards replacing Mick Abrahams, who had already established a solid reputation as a blues-based guitarist, and being part of an album that started to move the band away from their more blues orientated, well received, debut?

MB: Well, I was very aware that I was replacing a very respected and loved guitar player and Mick had a huge following.
I had seen Tull once, and we had supported them down in Plymouth, and really it was Mick who was the star of the band; people came to see him play.
Ian was the zany front man and everyone in the crowd would think that was hilarious or say "isn’t that cool!" but musically the focus back then was Mick.
So to be replacing him was a huge ask and, yeah, I was quite nervous, but because I wasn’t playing the same music that did make it a bit easier.
But [laughs], people didn’t necessarily like the change from the blues band they had heard – and Mick playing that blues – and initially that was what they wanted more of.
​So because they weren’t getting that any more it took a few months for people to come round to liking Stand Up, but although it was hard work it was also an exciting album to make – we were all still finding ourselves and this was new music that wasn’t easy to play for those days.
It was all very ground-breaking stuff and even in the studio we had no idea at what level we were; we didn’t know if it was going to be a disaster and have people call it rubbish or if they were going to say "Wow! This is where music is going to go!"
So, yeah, exciting times!
Picture
      Jethro Tull's Aqualung (with a title track that features a Martin Barre guitar solo regularly cited as one
      of the greatest ever in rock music) and the Grammy Award winning Crest of a Knave (containing some
      of Barre's finest six-string work) are two of the best rock albums of the 70s and 80s, respectively.
   

RM: Four and half decades on from Stand Up and those early Tull days you can look back at a highly regarded album catalogue with a great deal of pride and satisfaction, especially in regard to your own contributions – which leads to another, often musically misconstrued point…
In the latter years of the band the names Jethro Tull and Ian Anderson were almost interchangeable and while Jethro Tull were led by Ian’s voice, lyrics, conceptual themes and musical direction this was a band...

MB: Yes, in the early days the roots were essentially band orientated but it did change and I actually think a lot of that was the record label.
They wanted an image – and concentrating on the guy who was on one leg playing the flute was a very powerful image – so much so that it became not just the image of the band but the official badge of the band.
So it changed and diluted over the years but that’s how things can happen, and it still worked very well.
In fact that focus may well have made the band what it was.    

RM: And your guitar playing, regarded as one of the most distinct and impacting guitar styles in rock – it’s true that you never took lessons or listened to any other guitarists so you wouldn’t be influenced by how they sounded or how they played?

MB: Yeah, pretty much. I like other guitar players but they’ve never bothered me [laughs] – by that I mean I’ve never heard someone and thought "I want to play exactly like that."
But they do inspire me and I love to listen to great guitar players – I like to listen to Robben Ford because he inspires me to do better; he has such great phrasing and dynamics in his playing.
So there are a lot of good things happening out there with guitarists but in the end I go my own way and I’m as happy listening to a piano or an oboe playing a bit of Mozart as I am listening to Joe Bonamassa.
I think you can draw your influences from anywhere and it can be more useful to draw those influences from another instrument.
For example I enjoy listening to B.B. King but I’m not going to be able to play like him or emulate what he did – forget it; don’t even go there! [laughs]

RM: Fair point but for me – as a listener and as a fan of Jethro Tull and your solo work – when I hear Martin Barre I hear a very melodically orientated  guitarist.
In other words I hear a "player" as opposed to a "soloist."

MB: Well I love and enjoy melody and love great songs with melody.
In fact that would be my ambition beyond being a great guitar player – to have a song that people would remember. I heard Will Young, of all people [laughs], make that very point recently on the radio.
He was saying he was immensely proud that he had written a song, or songs, that people were singing along to; that’s the best thing that can ever happen to a song writer.
Of course it doesn’t have to be Will Young – I could say Stevie Winwood or Paul Carrack or Don Henley or any number of great singers or great song writers – but that is just such a fantastic thing to have happen.
One day I would love to write a piece of music that you would hear people hum everywhere; that must be such an amazing thing.
But to get back to your comment, I really do love melody and maybe that’s how I play – I can "hear" a melody and find or "feel" that melody on the neck of the guitar.

RM: Perhaps after all these years we’ve finally been able to accurately identify your style of playing, and in only two words at that – "with melody."

MB: Yes! Maybe that’s my guitar style! [laughs]

RM: Martin, thanks for speaking to FabricationsHQ and here’s to you writing that one song that everyone will be humming along to.
In the meantime we’re going to outro with one of the many outstanding Jethro Tull songs you put your six string stamp on 
– and it's one that captures both your melodic and bluesy, rock based sensibilities.

MB: Thanks Ross, it's been great talking to you. This has been a lot of fun! Cheers!
Ross Muir
Muirsical Conversation with Martin Barre
October 2015   


​
Martin Barre official website: www.martinbarre.com

Back to Steel is available now on CD through Amazon and the official website shop


'Farm on the Freeway' taken from the Grammy Award winning Jethro Tull album Crest of a Knave (1989)

Martin Barre photo credit: press kit image

Audio tracks presented to accompany the above article and promote the work of the artist/s.
No infringement of copyright is intended.
Website and text contents © FabricationsHQ and Ross Muir
All Rights Reserved