You can check out of Jethro Tull any time you like, but you can never leave. Lead guitarist Martin Barre parted with the band in 2011, after playing alongside frontman Ian Anderson for more than four decades. On Wednesday at City Winery he’ll present his own, more guitar-centric version of Tull’s musical history.
“I’m quite a determined and obstinate person,” he said from his home in England this week. “So I’ve taken up the flag, and I know that sounds a bit romantic — but I think the brand of Jethro Tull needs to be flown high, if that’s not too mixed a metaphor. I’m very proud of what we did and what we were, and I want to keep carrying that forward. And I’ve enjoyed making my journey into the back catalog of Tull, and pulling out some gems that sound great when we play them live.”
Barre’s current band isn’t modelled on Tull: There’s two guitars, minimal keyboards, and the only flute happens when Barre plays a bit of it himself. He’s going further into the back catalogue than Tull ever did onstage, pulling out deep cuts that fans never thought they’d hear live — even drawing from oft-ignored albums like “A” and “Under Wraps.”
“That goes back to the later days of Tull. It got so we were playing the same set every year. The fans didn’t like that, and I really didn’t either. I do like to push the envelope a bit, and I like that people can expect a different set whenever they see me. For this tour we have a different drummer so I’ve taken the bold, possibly stupid step of changing everything around. We’re doing some of my own music and a few surprise things — dare I say, cover tunes.”
He is however playing Tull’s greatest hit, “Aqualung” after leaving it out for years. “I think any Tull set has to have ‘Aqualung’ or ‘Locomotive Breath’ but maybe not both. That’s got a nice solo, it has a few stock phrases but there’s flexibility in there to freshen it up every night. And if I can’t make it fresh I’m not going to play it.”
Barre’s departure from Tull wasn’t especially friendly. Anderson simply dissolved the group in 2011 and then reformed it a few years later without inviting him back (The current Tull guitarist is a young guy who only joined this year). Recently Barre raised some eyebrows among fans when he said in a much-shared interview that Anderson shouldn’t be using the name, since it’s not really Jethro Tull without both of them there. But he declines to comment any further on that one.
“I’d better not, because that got a serious backlash, and not from fans. Things can get a bit political. But I’m happy with the person I am and the people I play with, and I’m sure Ian is the same. But our paths don’t cross- – physically, mentally or emotionally. I still get people at my shows asking ‘Why isn’t Ian there?’ and I’m sure it annoys him just as much when people go to his gigs and say ‘Why isn’t Martin there?’ ”