On Sunday evening, in a basement space little bigger than my living room, Martin Carthy gave a two hour folk tradition masterclass to a riveted 50-strong audience. From 'High Germany', the very first track on his very first album in 1965, to 'Her Servant Man' from 2014's 'The Moral Of The Elephant' (his most recent LP, recorded with daughter Eliza), Carthy cherry-picked tunes from a vast repertoire, offering extensive background information to every song as well as crediting all the relevant sources in each case. 'The Bedmaking' from 1976's 'Crown of Horn', an epic 'Famous Flower Of Serving Men' from 2006's 'Waiting for Angels' and 'Georgie' from 1998's 'Signs of Life' were a few of the many high-points, as was an acapella romp through 'Oor Hamlet', which was a complete hoot that had us all in stitches. Best of the lot though was 'Bill Norrie', a tragic ballad originally recorded for 'Right of Passage' in 1988, but these days delivered at a considerably slower pace, an arrangement that only adds further gravitas to the sombre subject matter. This poor quality audience recording of 'Bill Norrie' from last year merely hints at how jaw-dropping Martin's performance of the song was on Sunday.
Tuesday 22 March 2016
Martin Carthy
On Sunday evening, in a basement space little bigger than my living room, Martin Carthy gave a two hour folk tradition masterclass to a riveted 50-strong audience. From 'High Germany', the very first track on his very first album in 1965, to 'Her Servant Man' from 2014's 'The Moral Of The Elephant' (his most recent LP, recorded with daughter Eliza), Carthy cherry-picked tunes from a vast repertoire, offering extensive background information to every song as well as crediting all the relevant sources in each case. 'The Bedmaking' from 1976's 'Crown of Horn', an epic 'Famous Flower Of Serving Men' from 2006's 'Waiting for Angels' and 'Georgie' from 1998's 'Signs of Life' were a few of the many high-points, as was an acapella romp through 'Oor Hamlet', which was a complete hoot that had us all in stitches. Best of the lot though was 'Bill Norrie', a tragic ballad originally recorded for 'Right of Passage' in 1988, but these days delivered at a considerably slower pace, an arrangement that only adds further gravitas to the sombre subject matter. This poor quality audience recording of 'Bill Norrie' from last year merely hints at how jaw-dropping Martin's performance of the song was on Sunday.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Greatest Hits
-
Just lately I've been spending more time than usual in London. My aunt is having a few health issues and my cousin has had to fly in fro...
-
Somehow, don't ask me exactly how it happened, I seem to have reached the grand old age of 57. Last time I checked, I could've sw...
-
It's the summer of 1974. Go down to the bottom of my road, through the park, round the edge of the allotments beyond, on past the cricke...
-
I started to seriously look into my family tree over the past winter, in an effort to make sense of the paper trail left by Mum. In the 1980...
-
To the anonymous strangers on the surrounding tables in the cafe we probably looked like two old friends having a long overdue catch-up o...
7 comments:
I'm due to see him later in the year with jazz guitarist Martin Taylor. In a room not much bigger.
Sounds like a splendid night out John.
Sounds like a gig
I'm oozing with jealousy, Mr. S. Love Martin Carthy and his repertoire!
A legend in a living room. Live music at its best, surely? It truly sounds like a wonderful evening.
Filled with envy.
T'was a special evening to be sure. Almost a week later, 'Bill Norrie' is still my earworm!
Post a Comment