Born in England, Brett had previously played guitar in the 1960s psych-pop outfits Tintern Abbey and Velvet Opera. He departed the second of those groups to cut sides with the cult favorite Fire, whose lineup included Dave Lambert, later of the Strawbs. The band’s founding bassist Dick DuFall and drummer Bob Voice soon left Fire to form Paul Brett’s Sage with Brett and guitarist Stuart Cowell. At the dawn of the 1970s the quartet issued three well-regarded albums on Dawn, the Pye Records imprint. Brett subsequently pursued a solo singer-songwriter path, releasing numerous recordings throughout the decade while refining an elegant yet technically assured approach built around his 12-string guitar. Strawbs personnel frequently appeared on these sessions. Although the 1974 album Clocks remains his most widely recalled work, his output grew progressively less compelling as the decade wore on; nevertheless, the 1980 release Romantic Guitar attained gold status. Throughout the 1980s Brett stepped away from recording to focus on production and management, reemerging in the late 1990s on his own Fretdancer imprint, occasionally alongside guitarist John Joyce, a former Velvet Opera colleague.
