Beverley Martyn, the British folk singer-songwriter whose career touched nearly every significant corner of the 1960s and 1970s folk and rock scene, has died peacefully at home at the age of 79. A statement from the family of her former husband, the late John Martyn, confirmed the news. “Beverley was a remarkable woman of great inner strength,” the family wrote. “She was beautiful, intelligent, warm and kind.” She died on April 27, 2026.
Born Beverley Kutner near Coventry on March 24, 1947, she arrived in London in her mid-teens for drama school and found her way almost immediately into the folk scene flourishing in clubs like Les Cousins, Bunjies, and the Troubadour. Bert Jansch, an early boyfriend, taught her guitar and encouraged her songwriting. She can be seen lounging in the background of the cover photograph of his 1965 album ‘It Don’t Bother Me.’ She recorded her first single, “Babe I’m Leaving You,” with her band the Levee Breakers for Parlophone that same year. She was sixteen.
What followed was a run of moments that should have made her a household name. She became the first signing to Deram, the progressive new imprint from Decca, her label-mate at number two being Cat Stevens. Her debut Deram single was Randy Newman’s “Happy New Year,” recorded with Jimmy Page, John Paul Jones, Nicky Hopkins, and Andy White providing the backing. Page later said of the session: “I knew that she was a shining talent in the world of performance and songwriting.” Another single, “Museum,” was written by Donovan. She became romantically involved with Paul Simon during his formative London years, travelled with him to the Monterey Pop Festival in 1967, and contributed her voice to the Simon & Garfunkel album ‘Bookends,’ a No. 1 on both sides of the Atlantic.
She met John Martyn in 1969, and the two married and recorded together in Woodstock with Levon Helm on drums and Joe Boyd producing, releasing ‘Stormbringer!’ in February 1970, followed by ‘The Road to Ruin’ later that year, both on Island Records. Songs like “Sweet Honesty,” “Auntie Aviator,” and “Primrose Hill” (later sampled by Fatboy Slim on his 2004 track “North West Three”) have outlived the era that produced them. During this period she also came to know Nick Drake, who would babysit for her children. The two began writing a song together, “Reckless Jane,” in 1974, which Beverley completed and recorded decades later. “I couldn’t even think about the song for so long because it brought up so much pain,” she said at the time of its release.
What came next is harder to write about, and Beverley herself never flinched from it. Island pushed John toward a solo career and her own trajectory was sidelined. The marriage deteriorated under the weight of John Martyn’s alcoholism and abuse. She later spoke about it without bitterness: “There was love there. It was the drink and the bad drugs, the very heavy ones, that changed his disposition, and they made life unbearable for anyone around him. I wouldn’t stay with a man who was killing himself.” She escaped, moved to Brighton, raised her children, and made music when and where she could, including time with Loudon Wainwright III and Wilko Johnson.
Her return came fully in 2014 with the solo album ‘The Phoenix and the Turtle,’ produced by Mark Pavey and featuring Matt Malley of Counting Crows on bass and Victor Bisetti of Los Lobos on drums. “It was a great relief to finally do something on my own terms,” she said at the time. “That was a dream I’d almost given up on.” The year before its release she performed at the Bert Jansch tribute concert at London’s Royal Festival Hall alongside Robert Plant, Donovan, and members of Pentangle. In 2018 she released ‘Where The Good Times Are,’ a compilation of her 1960s material. Her memoir, ‘Sweet Honesty,’ published in 2011, took its title from one of the ‘Stormbringer!’ songs and captured her relationship to the whole chapter, unflinching but free of self-pity.
She had always been more than a footnote in someone else’s story. She was there, with a guitar and a voice, from the very beginning. Beverley Martyn is survived by her children.