Martin Carthy and Eliza Carthy
Laugharne
March 2024
Live Review
Laugharne festival is a magical affair that has been taking place for more than ten years in the winding and beautiful West Wales village of the same name. John Robb is spellbound by the Carthy’s who headline in the local church.
Famous for being where Dylan Thomas lived from 1949 until his death in 1953, Laugharne is the perfect place for literate shenigans and has a magnetic pull on many writers and musicians who make the pilgrimage for the weekend event. This year, the likes of Jah Wobble, Irvine Welsh, Alexi Sayle, Cerys Mathews, Robin Askwith and many others gave talks and in conversations on their art and creativity and the joy of words in an entertaining run of events in the old village hall and pubs.
There was music as well, and in the church hall, there was a spellbinding set from folk legends Martin Carthy and his daughter Eliza. They delivered an exploration of English folk songs with all the ribald life affirming bits left in. A joyous delievring that didnt shy away from the dark energy of the form this was a glimpse into the potent power of the form. Tonight, the good Doctor Martin Carthy and his twice Mercury nominated daughter Eliza Carthy, joined forces to perform songs from their first duo album ever THE ELEPHANT released on Topic Records.
At 82, Martin may be unsurprisingly a touch less nimble than he was decades ago, but he still has the charisma adding to his elder statesman wisdom that adds a gravitas to these ancient songs and melodies. The legendary ballad singer and guitarist has influenced a generations of artists, including Bob Dylan and Paul Simon, whilst Eliza has been twice-nominated for the Mercury Music Prize and a multiple-award winner at the BBC Radio Two Folk awards.
Martin’s guitar parts are as angular and ancient as ever and a glimpse into the endless highway that peels back the centuries to the earliest days of this form. This is a troubadour who knows his stuff and is steeped in the very oak and elm of English musics that are part of the fabric and soil of this nation. Thanks to his and a clutch of others efforts in the fifties the very music has been preserved and updated for the now and in the post industrial age the on going rediscovery of these musics entwines our souls like ivy around an oak.
Martin’s mere presence is enough, but it’s his daughter, Eliza’s ebullient performance that fills the church with her warmth and passion. She is a captivating presence with a powerful voice, and her violin adds textures and sounds that also hark back to the very roots of the music. She is also hilarious on stage, and her explanations of the songs are full of humour warmth and emotion as she recalls her late mother – another folk legend – Norma – singing the songs at home. Her charismatic takes underline the hidden treasures and depths of the songs, their emotional resonance and often dark yet very human storylines.
As soon as each song begins, we are cast back into the spell of the moment, the centuries peel away, and the father and the daughter are a time machine making the ancient modern, and as the old melodies and the potent creaking words echo around the old church hall, we are enraptured by a magic and a profound sense of something that we may have thought we had lost but thanks to the efforts of the performers is still there – a quicksilver presence in the digital age.
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