SOLID AIR

John Martyn's Solid Air reminds me of what would happen if you combined the intimate chamber folk of Nick Drake with the murky, slightly inebriated atmosphere of Van Morrison's Astral Weeks, then added some jazz sensibilities to the mix. The Drake connection, it turns out, is no coincidence - the title track's a tribute to Nick, though as with Drake's own material it's sufficiently lyrically obtuse that I suspect only Martyn and Drake ever knew the real meanin go the song - but the connections to the rest of the British folk scene don't stop there, with various folk luminaries including Richard Thompson serving in Martyn's backing band. The focus, however, is almost always in Martyn's touching vocals, which are able to command the listener's unceasing attention.