There were only four, the first of which, Catfish Rising, he was a session player, appearing on only a few tracks. It's an OK album, I guess, not one I play much.
Roots To Branches I like quite a bit, especially the title track.
J-Tull Dot Com I don't have, so I can't say.
The Jethro Tull Christmas Album is, as far as Christmas albums go, a good one.
Not the most celebrated of Tull eras, I think the band had run it's course by now. However, you may love it.
Thanks Mike. I watched part of an interview with Martin Barre where he talked about enjoying being leader of his own band though by the sounds of it, it took quite a lot of hard work to get the music industry interested in him after he left Tull. He didn't sound happy about Ian using the Tull name as he reckons he has as much right to the name as Ian does. But it's not the first time musicians have fallen out over who has the rights to use a band name.
As with Strawbs, I've never got round to listening to much Tull over the years. But as I'm now getting very few promo albums for my radio show, I have more time to go back and listen to old stuff.
Tull circa 1969 is excellent.
Aqualung 71 and Thick As a Brick 72 is generally regarded as a peak period.
73 -76 is good solid stuff.
77-79, including the live Bursting Out is a second peak.
80's Tull with Peggy in the band, is good, mostly, but 80's production doesn't quite fit with the Tull sound.
A problem a lot of 70's bands suffered with. Crest Of A knave - Jethro Convention play Dire Straits, is pretty good.
After that, it tends to be 'Oh - a new Tull album with Tull Tulling on it.'
The other members, aside from Ian and Martin, don't have the personalities that seem to shape the music like previous incarnations did.
I agree with Martin pretty much, and I think Ian sort of did when they stopped working together, I'm sure he said as much, it's not Tull without Martin.
It was always the Ian Anderson band, and many people thought Ian was a bloke called Jethro Tull, if only subliminally. But with Martin as the wing man, it was more than just a solo project.
Why did Ian return to using the Tull name after stating that he promoting his own name rather than that of the seed guy ?
One can only surmise.