Tradfest: Martin Carthy & Eliza Carthy
Traverse Theatre - 01/05/22
In folk music the tradition is often carried on by the family.
Martin Carthy is one of the legends of English folk music. I’ve been listening to him sing since the 1960s and he has influenced many singers including Bob Dylan and Paul Simon who both used his arrangements, sometimes without acknowledgements. Martin is now 80 and a little frail and of course the voice is not as good as it was 50 years ago, and he takes a little longer to tune his guitar, but the spirit is still there, and he still carries the tradition.
Martin lost his wife Norma recently and I’m sure is still grieving. Norma Waterson was not just his wife, but one of the giants of English traditional music, as the lead singer in ‘The Watersons’, a family-based group which produced the best close harmony folk music in the 1960s. Martin began to sing with the Watersons in 1972 and more recently the group was known as Waterson: Carthy, with Martin singing with Norma and their daughter Eliza. After Norma’s death Martin and Eliza have decided to carry on singing together; they are carrying on the tradition.
Eliza is 46 and as each year passes resembles her mother Norma more and more. Her voice is amazing, strong powerful and tuneful, and she is already a very well established singer, and indeed was awarded an OBE for services to folk music in 2014. Eliza is also an accomplished musician. Tonight she only played the fiddle but played it very well, along and with Martin’s guitar; they provided a great musical accompaniment to the songs.
The Traverse Theatre’s largest room was almost sold out for the concert and many older folk lovers were in attendance. The traditional folk audience is let’s say “mature”. The Soundhouse organiser who produces Tradfest said young people don’t tend to go to folk clubs but instead tend to go to concerts with bands they know, something that folk clubs are finding painful. But tonight we were celebrating a folk legend and his successor on the same platform. It promised to be a good night and it was.
The concert itself contained a number of songs from their last record together, ‘The Moral of the Elephant’, including ‘Her Servant Man’, ‘Blackwell Merry Night’, ‘A Grand Conversation on Napoleon’, but it’s worth noting that this record was issued in 2014. Martin also sang some of his old traditional repertoire, notably ‘Scarborough Fair’ of which Paul Simon famously stole the arrangement, without acknowledgement, and had a massive hit. Later he did acknowledge his debt to Martin and hopefully made a little financial recompense! Sadly, this song brought out the problem with ageing. I’ve listened to Martin sing this song since the 1960’s and of course the voice changes as you get older. In opera singers typically retire in their 60s when they can longer meet their best standards, though some like Placido Domingo go on pretending to be a baritone, but really is a tenor who can longer make the high notes. Joan Baez, who had a dazzling soprano voice, now has a lovely mezzo voice. Martin now has a husky voice which isn’t as good as it was 20 years ago, never mind 50 years ago, but it is still a good enough voice to sing the songs and to carry the tradition. In this he is aided by his daughter Eliza who is a life force; she has a powerful voice, is a great instrumentalist and clearly, she loves her dad and is taking him through this final phase of his great musical life. For most of us this will be the last time we see Martin; we were privileged to be there, and we left happy that Eliza is carrying on the tradition of a great musical family.
