Martin Barre

Martin Barre took over lead guitar duties in Jethro Tull in 1969, stepping in for Mick Abrahams and forging an enduring creative alliance with Ian Anderson. His guitar work has supplied much of the drive that lets the group reach striking heights on record and onstage, balancing the elegance of Anderson’s melodies against the depth of his lyrics, and figured prominently when the long-running act—occasionally dismissed as a dinosaur—captured the 1988 Grammy for Best Hard Rock Album with Crest of a Knave. Anderson has stated outright, “Without Martin Barre, Jethro Tull could not exist.”

Until the early 1990s, Barre’s own projects stayed inside his home studio. At that point he formed a band for a series of charity shows, after which he released two albums that opened paths Tull rarely follows and placed his instrument inside unfamiliar sounds, styles, and settings.