Events

[ROCK] The way the story goes, Martin Barre’s original audition for Jethro Tull (the result of an invitation for Tull’s manager Terry Ellis following a shared bill with Barre’s band of the time, Gethsemane) didn’t go well—he was too nervous to play. But a second audition was furnished at his request, and Barre then spent the 1968 holiday season learning guitar parts for Tull’s classic Stand Up album, which got recorded the following spring. Barre’s tenure as Tull’s guitarist extended until the band’s (supposed) dissolution two years ago and also included bits of mandolin and flute. Over the years, he also became a key co-writer with front man Ian Anderson, his contribution to the band’s trademark neo-classical arrangements reaching a pinnacle with Songs from the Wood (1977) and Heavy Horses (1978), and again on 1987’s Crest of a Knave. During the 1990s, he launched the solo career that brings him to Sportsmen’s Tavern on Thursday, September 15. In the wake of Tull’s potentially permanent hiatus, Barre has released a live album and a pair of new studio recordings, 2014’s Order of Play and the blues-focused Back to Steel last year.