{"id":9705,"date":"2015-11-26T05:30:38","date_gmt":"2015-11-26T05:30:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=9705"},"modified":"2015-12-03T20:51:41","modified_gmt":"2015-12-03T20:51:41","slug":"guitarist-martin-barres-post-jethro-tull-world-full-on-fun","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2015\/11\/26\/guitarist-martin-barres-post-jethro-tull-world-full-on-fun\/","title":{"rendered":"Full-on Fun: Guitarist Martin Barre’s Post-Jethro Tull World"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ask most people who the leader of Jethro Tull<\/a><\/strong> was, and they say, \u201cWhy, Mr. Tull, of course!\u201d No, that\u2019s Ian Anderson<\/a><\/strong> you\u2019re thinking of. But the mainstay of that group alongside the flutist\/singer was ace guitarist Martin Barre<\/strong>. On all but the first of the band\u2019s twenty-plus albums, it\u2019s Barre\u2019s fretwork that you\u2019ll hear. With the disbanding of Jethro Tull in 2013, Barre has focused more intently on his solo career. But a Martin Barre solo tour isn\u2019t one of those \u201colder guy with an acoustic\u201d shows where you get quiet readings of the back catalog. No, Barre is a fiery guitarist in a blues-rock mode, and he\u2019s touring with a full band. He plays Asheville’s Grey Eagle on Thursday, December 3. [Buy tickets here<\/a>.]<\/p>\n

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The concert will feature tunes from Barre’s new album, Back in Steel<\/i>, alongside select re-imagined classics from the Jethro Tull songbook. Back to Steel<\/i> includes a new reading of \u201cSkating Away (on the Thin Ice of a New Day),\u201d a tune that originally appeared on Jethro Tull’s 1974 War Child<\/i> LP. Barre’s arrangement strikes a balance between remaining faithful to the Tull version and offering up something new. And on his current concert tour, Barre leads his band through some other reinvented songs from his Jethro Tull years. \u201cI’m looking for a song that I can do something with,\u201d he says. \u201cAnd very often it’s a song that didn’t [originally] have lots of guitar in it. That gives me a sort of whole different place to go. And these really work live; they have a lot of energy.\u201d The band’s set sometimes includes new versions of \u201cSweet Dream\u201d (from 1978’s Bursting Out<\/i>), and two tunes from 1969’s Stand Up<\/i>, Jethro Tull’s second album (and the first to feature Barre on guitar), \u201cNew Day Yesterday\u201d and \u201cFat Man.\u201d Barre characterizes his arrangement of that last title as \u201cquite rock ‘n’ roll.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Barre began his professional career as a musician in the mid-to-late 1960s (he recorded some early sides with a then-unknown Elton John<\/b>), and joined Jethro Tull in 1968. But it wasn’t until the early 1990s that he began recording and releasing solo albums; with the regular schedule of Tull album releases and world tours, there simply wasn’t time to focus on a solo career. In more recent years, Ian Anderson has wound down activities for his band, and in the 21st<\/sup> century, Barre is busy with that long-delayed solo career. \u201cI never really had the time for it in the days with Tull; the schedule was so punishing; really full-on. If we ever got a few weeks off anywhere, I just wanted to relax.\u201d Only in the 1980s did Barre begin writing music. Back to Steel<\/i> is his seventh solo album. And even now, he says, \u201cI still feel very much like I haven’t peaked. I have a lot more to go, and I’m going to get better and better.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI love writing,\u201d Barre says. \u201cIt’s a fresh, energetic process for me. Many artists of my era get a bit tired \u2013 more mentally than physically \u2013 so I’m quite glad that it all sort of happened later on for me. It’s all accelerated in the last three, four years.”<\/p>\n

It’s not as if Barre was starting from scratch. Even though most all Jethro Tull tracks bear the songwriting credit of Ian Anderson, Barre had a substantial hand in song arrangements. Anderson often brought songs to the band in \u201cvery, very basic form,\u201d Barre says. \u201cAnd the great thing about Tull is that it was a band working together; it always was. I always get asked about credit, and I say that while one guy might have written the words and the chords, that’s the tip of the iceberg.\u201d<\/p>\n

Barre says that while he’s always enjoyed the method of \u201cworking a song beginning to end, having a big picture idea of what [I] want,\u201d he uses a similarly collaborative band approach today in his solo career.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don’t give many guidelines,\u201d Barre says. \u201cThe other guys will have got a pretty good idea of what [the song’s] about. But then, it’s down to them. And very rarely will I say, ‘try this other bit instead.’ They really have a very nice way of working with me. And ninety-nine percent of the time, I like what they do. That’s why they’re in the band: because they’re musicians who think like me.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Martin Barre’s guitar style is informed by the music he loves, but \u201cI don’t use the word influences<\/i>,\u201d he says. \u201cI’m not being awkward or snobby, but I listen to a lot of music \u2013 whatever the instrument is; doesn’t have to be guitar \u2013 and I get inspiration from riffs in music. Particularly classical music; I love orchestration.\u201d Still, he will admit to admiring the work of some well-known guitarists: Mark Knopfler<\/b>, Robben Ford<\/b>, Scott Henderson<\/b>, Gary Moore<\/b>, Stevie Ray Vaughan<\/b>; people who have \u201cemotion in their playing,\u201d Barre says. \u201cAnd I hope that’s what I’m<\/i> like.\u201d<\/p>\n

Barre contrasts those names with \u201cguys who have got crazy technique. I can listen to that stuff for maybe five minutes, and I’m not really happy. I’m looking for a lot more; I’m not impressed by pyrotechnics. The greatest melody in the world,\u201d he says, \u201cis one that people [can] hum. It might be an ABBA<\/b> song, it might be a Beatles<\/b> song.\u201d<\/p>\n

Speaking of the Beatles, Back to Steel<\/i> features a radically reinvented version of \u201cEleanor Rigby,\u201d a song that originally appeared on the group’s 1966 Revolver<\/i> LP. Barre says that he wrote his own rock arrangement some fifteen years ago. \u201cI originally wrote it as an instrumental. You know, Jeff Beck<\/b> does some pretty cool things with classic songs, and though [‘Eleanor Rigby’] is nothing like that, I thought it would be a bit of fun.\u201d He recalls, \u201cI was in the studio one day with nothing in particular to do, so I started messing around with it. I recorded it as a demo \u2013 changing the chords and melody \u2013 and then I sat on it for years. And then last year I thought I could do something with it. It’s a great song, and I hope I left enough of it to preserve what it is, while still bringing something new to the table that makes it a bit fresher.\u201d<\/p>\n

As far as music that’s complicated for its own sake, Barre observes, \u201cI think the fans of that music are other musicians. When I watch tennis, I love the guy who’s got a beautiful backhand. It’s an art in itself. And I just love the beauty<\/i> in things.\u201d He chuckles, and notes, \u201cMaybe I’m sounding a bit pompous. But beauty really is in the eye (and ear) of the beholder. And I really like things that make me smile.\u201d<\/p>\n

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One of the tracks on Back to Steel<\/i> in which Barre combines technique with emotion-filled, expressive playing is \u201cHammer.\u201d And fans of Jethro Tull might note just how little it sounds like anything in the Tull catalog. Barre laughs when I ask if he consciously seeks to create music that doesn’t sound at all like his old band. \u201cI’m never that aware,\u201d he says. \u201cI never give myself an agenda. Because that narrows the field, and I like to be really open-minded. I go where the music takes me.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI don’t have any hangups about Tull,\u201d Barre says. \u201cIn the later years, I had less and less to do with it. I was quite a frustrated musician in many ways, though I didn’t realize it until I started my own band. It was only then I realized how little guitar playing was going onto Tull albums.\u201d The freedom to open up on guitar a bit is something Barre relishes. “I’m really happy [now]; I love lots and lots of guitar.”<\/p>\n

Still, Barre has fond memories of the music and working relationships he enjoyed in his nearly 45 years in Jethro Tull. \u201cNow that Tull’s finished, it’s my intention that none of those guys ever get forgotten. As far as I can help it, their names should be kept in the foremost of everybody’s minds. They all had a really vital role to play.\u201d Barre credits archivist Martin Webb<\/b> with doing a good job on that score; Webb oversees the current Jethro Tull reissue series, packages that include bonus tracks, essays, and remixes by Steven Wilson<\/b><\/a>. Barre does quip that the people at the reissue label \u201cdon’t even have my phone number. The first time I see any of the reissues is when someone hands me one to sign!\u201d<\/p>\n