English folk singer Beverley Martyn dead at 79
Beverley Martyn, the English folk singer, has died peacefully aged 79.
Her family confirmed in a statement, “It is with profound sadness, that we announce that Beverley passed away peacefully at home on 27 April 2026. Beverley was a remarkable woman of great inner strength. She was beautiful, intelligent, warm and kind.”
Reflecting on her career, it described Martyn as “an incredibly talented singer and songwriter”. Martyn recorded her first single ‘Babe I’m Leaving You’ with The Levee Breakers in 1965, before launching a solo career a year later, releasing ‘Happy New Year’ on Duram Records/
That aforementioned single featured Led Zeppelin’s Jimmy Page, who at that time was a session musician. Her career also saw Martyn work with Levon Helm, Dave Pegg, Richard Thompson, John Renbourn, Ralph McTell, Davy Graham and Sandy Denny.
Additionally, she became friendly with Paul Simon while he was living in the UK, which eventually led to her contributing to the Simon and Garfunkel album, Bookends, and performing with him at the iconic Monterey Pop Festival in 1967.
In 1969, she met John Martyn, who she quickly married, as well as forming a musical duo together, releasing two albums in 1970.
However, their time as a musical duo was shortlived with John, under pressure from his label, reverting to his solo career, which left Beverley out of the spotlight.
“My career was over”, she said in 2014 (per The Guardian), adding, “I had my hands full. I did the odd gig with John, and the odd one on my own, but I had no future.”
In 1980, Beverley ended her marriage to John due to his issues with alcohol and substance abuse, stating, “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.”
However, she still remained exiled from the music industry until the 1990s, when Loudon Wainwright convinced her to support him on tour. At this stage, her children were fully grown, and in 1998, she cemented her comeback with the album, No Frills.
Her final studio album, The Phoenix and the Turtle, which contained a previously unheard song she wrote with close friend Nick Drake in the 1970s, arrived in 2014.
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