"Sweet Honesty"

[Corey]

Hi Kate,

I was just wondering if you had heard about John Martyn's passing, and if you had any thoughts. Did you know him?

Maybe my favorite track off of Sister Kate is your cover of "Sweet Honesty," which I understand was written by John's wife at the time, Beverley Martyn. How did you discover that song, and how did you come to select it for the album?

-Corey

[Kate Taylor]

Hey Corey
This is sad news. I did not know John personally, and didn't know any other of his or Beverley's songs. That song was brought to my attention by Peter Asher, my manager at the time, and my producer. He had and probably still has a wonderful ability to find great songs, and he brought several songs to the Sister Kate project. It was Peter who introduced me to Elton John. Peter knew his manager at the time, and we went to see Elton play his very first show in America, at the Troubador. That night, I heard "Country Comfort" and "Ballad of a Well Known Gun" and a day or so later I had a meeting with E where I asked his permission to record those songs. His album "Tumbleweed Connection" was just being released.
Peter was fresh from England where he had, as we all know, an amazing career as a singer and producer before coming to live in LA and produce and manage artists.
Thank you for sharing the news about John, thank you for the kind words about my recording of their song, and thank you for the question.
Much love, Kate

[Corey]

Thank you so much Kate!

I was wondering if Peter was involved. Cool to know!

Interesting to hear about the Elton connection too. So did you record "Country Comfort" and "Ballad of a Well Known Gun" based only on the live performances at the Troubadour, without hearing Elton's final recorded versions that appeared on Tumbleweed Connection?

Also, in researching "Sweet Honesty", I found out that Elton had actually recorded the song a year or so earlier but it has never been officially released. Perhaps it was a demo. I wonder if Peter first heard the song from getting handed that recording, or if he was familiar with John and Beverley Martyn's own version of the song from Stormbringer!, which was released in 1970.

Anyway, I love hearing about this stuff, so thank you very much for sharing.

-Corey