The wide scope of John Martyn's music made him hard to market to a rock audience satisfied with easy categories, but the difficulty made him attractive to other musicians. Johnny Boy Would Love This is a two-CD tribute by a vast range of artists, including The Cure's Robert Smith, Phil Collins, Butch Vig and Vashti Bunyan. From the start of his recording career in 1968 through his death in 2009, Martyn passed between genres and added new interests as his life progressed.
Songwriting was always his strength; he could create characters and scenarios with few words and frame them in music with many sources. Echoes of blues and soul are heard on some of the tribute's tracks; the airy and atmospheric sit alongside the gritty, and magical British folk abides with jazz-accented pop. Johnny Boy Would Love This is a much better accolade for Martyn than the posthumous collection of unfinished sessions released earlier this year.
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