Walk To The Water by John Martyn-A Cover

Cover by me of 'Walk To The Water' by John Martyn off of the 'Bless The Weather' album 197,1 Island Records. Incidentally, the guitarist-singer John Smith did a very nice cover of this, for the recent John Martyn tribute album, & well worth a listen to. [JM Guitar nuttas: I used regular tuning but tuned open 2&1/2 tones down, tho' guitar here is capoed up 2 tones..net effect I was 1 semitone down from regular, at least roughly. This tune is fairly easy in structure, F-G- C-Am- Dm -G is basic sequence for picking around-& assuming regular pitch tuning is used, this piece would be in the Cmajor key. The picking is very natural in regular, & so I am fairly sure regular tuning was used by John Martyn himself for this, at some pitch. I used a Boss looper to record me 'bongo slapping' the soundboard of the guitar for a 'drumbeat' for the backbeat here. Recorded live on 2 tracks- drumbeat and mic'd guitar on 1 track and vocals (+ some guitar) on the other track. Try as I did, I couldnt learn the lyrics by heart on this- hence the constant cribbing while I played]

Category:

Music

Tags:

• John Martyn
• Bless The Weather
• Walk To The Water
• Yamaha LLX16
• Acoustic guitar
• Fingerstyle
• Fingerpicking
• John Smith
• Folk
• Jazz
• Blues

[fivethumbsfrank]

Hey Ian, your voice works great on this one very nice guitar playing too!

[ianmcgeachy]

@fivethumbsfrank Ta' very much for the appreciation...the guitar picking on this..almost doesn't let you stop playing it...some distinct 'grooves' emerge as you pick..esp' with the 'beat loop' I used for this.

[johnmartyntribute]

Oh, didn't noticed that before! Very sweetly one! Thanks again!

[ianmcgeachy]

@johnmartyntribute Delayed reply- sorry- no i/net while on an extended vacation- ta v much old bean..great one to play in standard tuning I reckon. -Ian

[buniluvr]

Hi Ian!

I think you've covered the whole album :) Outstanding performance! Love that pickslaptwang!! Thanks for sharing your talents !

cheers,

julie

[ianmcgeachy]

@buniluvr whoops Julie..didnt see this before. Ta very much. To be honest- There's only this, BTWeather, and Walkin back down the river, I can play from BTW album. Im sortof reaching 'backwards & forwards' from the mid 70s. From say SuChild/InsideOut/SAir/OneWorl­d period, occasionally. I def think others play early John *really well*, I like to learn from them there especially. -Ian

[jamesfdonaldson]

@ianmcgeachy Indeed it is Ian...same thing , and I've figured out that it's all self-induced , this pressure , and even more 'stoopid' is the better we get as musicians, the more fault we find in our own playing , LOL....and the cycle goes on....Gravel tones ?. likely natural in his voc...but...e.g. around 6-8 K ( upper mid ) try + 2 or 3 dB , see if it makes a diff....my natural voc. is way too soft and I have to tweak it.

Jim

[ianmcgeachy]

@jamesfdonaldson heyup Jim..just seen your re-reply-JM documentary,..shittin himself a bit...thats what I thought...and the number of gigs he did prior to this over the years!!. reminds me of when I was a young lad- boxing- they always used to say 'you're only as good as your last fight'. Similarities with performing then I presume eh? By the way..do you reckon the 'gravel' tones in his voice allows him to sortof 'sing softly' yet still 'cut through' ? Im interested in what you think there.-Ian

[ianmcgeachy]

@mvo5720 Hey Mike...thaz started talking like a young 'un...whats wi t'dude stuff.....yer gu and retire ,,,next thing youll be wearing them long baggy shorts n doing 'rap'.....Seriously...ta fer looking in and listening...good to know you like the sound..trying to develop that a bit...as well as prime goal of guitar playing obviously .-Ian

[mvo5720]

Hi Ian, sorry I missed this till today, great sound man, well done you cool dude you.