Live Music 2014 - Martin and Eliza Carthy

These are my thoughts on Saturday evening just gone, spent at The Cheese & Grain in Frome. I have long liked traditional folk music. Although that is no secret it was often one not mentioned in public, more kept to a circle of like-minded friends and family.
The support act was Amelia Orgill and The Teazle Folk Ensemble and my attempts at photography got off to a curious start.

I had no prior knowledge. I suspect they may not have seen themselves in a psychedelic light.

This was entirely down to a lack of forethought on my part although, looking on the bright side, less of a disaster than a flat battery. I had forgotten to reset my camera after using it outside in brilliant sunshine earlier in the day. It was nothing that, with a little thought and a pint of Milk Street Brewery '15' (it's just had a birthday!) on hand, I couldn't quickly overcome. Here is Amelia Orgill and The Teazle Folk Ensemble in the real world and indeed an unusual case of two bands that include father and daughter on the same bill.

I can't even start to imagine how terrifying this must have been. To open for one of the heroes of the first folk revival would be hard enough; add a heroine of the second and it is uncharted territory. I could hide, largely unseen, behind my camera whilst they could not and I was very aware of that. 
There is little that I can say about the Carthys other to say that it was a object lesson in traditional folk. The stories about the songs and where, by and from whom, they were collected might prove tedious to some --- too many tales of violent bailiffs, starvation and mining disasters.  

A certain northern sense of humour might help. They have it, and it is humbling.

Martin Carthy was born in St. Albans, which is not notably northern, in 1941.

 Eliza spent many years in Scotland. I think she said fourteen and it matters, as it so happens.

She sat out the occasional song, leaving her Dad alone on guitar and vocals.

The LP that much, but certainly not all by any means, of this set came from is 'The Moral of The Elephant'. That song is a warning that judging anything, based on just a part of the whole, is likely to be flawed.

This is another album, released 2 June 2014, that I feel is likely to make the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards list in 2015 and neither Martin or Eliza Carthy would be strangers to that.

This is a very interesting, yet concise, guide to the thinking behind the album.

New Music 2011 - A mixed case of folk - Part 2

To continue the theme from yesterday I shall add that one long-term characteristic of folk music is the permutations and combinations game. Jon Boden and John Spiers may be two elevenths of Bellowhead - indeed the founding ones - but that does not mean the resulting endeavour has subsumed them (or indeed the other nine members).  They have also been performing as a duo - more or less - for a decade now, releasing several LPs in that time, so perhaps some kind of simple 'Greatest Hits' is in order?

Not at all. 'The Works' (Navigator Records) has been released instead and it throws some surprises not least of which include the guests: Eliza Carthy, Maddy Prior, Martin Simpson and many others. Available now, it was released in July 2011.
  
This is the track list:

1. Tom Padget
2. Horn Fair
3. Gooseberry Bush/Laudanum Bunches
4. The Birth Of Robin Hood
5. The Cheshire Waltz
6. Brown Adam
7. Rochdale Coconut Dance
8. Old Maui
9. Haul Away
10. Bold Sir Ryles
11. Prickle-eye Bush

This next album in this post is another collaborative compilation and will be released by Shrewsbury Folk Fest on September 5, 2011.

You will no doubt spot the theme here: some artists link the LPs mentioned in this and yesterday's post.  It is to be an 18-track CD - accompanied by an 18-track DVD - and I believe the price is going to be quite reasonable.
This is the track list:

1. Mining For Songs
2. Mother England
3. Jeff Sturgeon's / I Like You, You're Common / When Lenny Met Andy Met Patsy
4. Cecil's Greatest Hits Vol.1
5. Dear Kimber
6. Lover's Lament
7. The CooCoo Bird
8. Meadows of Dan
9. Ol' Groundhog
10. Black Mountain Lullaby
11. Child's Song;  Barbara Allen
12. Aunt Maria
13. Beautiful Maud
14. Veggie In The Holler
15. Earl Brand
16. Ghost Of Songs
17. The Great Divide
18. Maud & Cecil

Shrewsbury Folk Festival 2011 takes place from 26 - 29 August and, looking at the line-up, my ideas on which festivals to consider for next year are looking more complicated with each passing week.