Martin Carthy

Martin Carthy embodied the pivotal figure and driving force of the English folk revival throughout the 1960s. His reach extended well beyond his considerable technical gifts, for in addition to ranking among the era’s most gifted acoustic guitarists, mandolin players, and multi-instrumentalists on the folk-club circuit, he delivered unadorned yet commanding vocals while functioning as an extraordinarily inventive arranger and editor who possessed an acute sensitivity to traditional material. Equally a researcher and an interpreter, he routinely examined the field notes and notebooks compiled by collectors such as Percy Grainger, locating incomplete passages that could be restored for live performance; rejecting any secondary sources, he drew instead upon the earliest available transcriptions and recordings of England’s oldest folk songs. By the time he prepared his first two albums in 1966, Carthy already shaped the work of Bob Dylan and Paul Simon, and by the close of the decade he served as the unofficial guide for nearly every committed young folk musician in England. At least three major English folk-rock ensembles—Fairport Convention, Steeleye Span, and the Albion Band—arose directly or indirectly through his assistance and example.

Despite his evident mastery, Carthy had not initially aimed for a musical career. After finishing school he worked as an assistant stage manager with various theater companies, only later gravitating toward the coffeehouses that proliferated in London during the late 1950s and early 1960s, a period when skiffle’s strong American flavor gave way to material rooted more specifically in British traditions. He performed for three years alongside Redd Sullivan, Marion Gray, and Pete Maynard in the Thameside Four, continuing until his growing reputation and the surge of demand from London clubs prompted him to appear alone. He became the resident singer at the Troubadour folk club in London, and while there he cut a four-song extended-play single for Topic Records that ultimately vanished between the studio and the pressing plant.

An audience nevertheless existed, and among those present were two Americans then visiting England. Paul Simon, attempting a solo folk career in London after the commercial disappointment of the first Simon & Garfunkel album, Wednesday Morning, 3 AM, encountered Carthy’s arrangement of the traditional song “Scarborough Fair.” Carthy supplied Simon with the arrangement, chords, and lyrics, which later formed the foundation of Simon’s own recording upon his return to the United States. Bob Dylan, another American active in London during 1965 while filming the television play Madhouse on Castle Street (a production that inspired teenager Duncan Brown to pursue music and eventually record a classic 1960s album), likewise heard Carthy perform “Lord Franklin.” Dylan adapted the melody for “Bob Dylan’s Dream” on the album Freewheelin’, which also references Carthy in its liner notes.

Carthy’s first appearance on record came via the English Decca anthology Hootenanny, although neither of his contributions reflected his characteristic style; “My Baby Has Gorn Dahn the Plug ’Ole” and “The End of My Old Cigar” served, as he later described, as comic relief amid the otherwise serious tone of the collection. Beyond the anticipated influence of folk-song collectors and arrangers such as A.L. Lloyd, his key inspirations included Ravi Shankar, whose inaugural London performance Carthy attended in 1957, and Davy Graham, whose rendition of “She Moved Through the Fair” stimulated Carthy’s interest in Indian music. By the mid-1960s Carthy had become a musical polymath, absorbing influences from across many traditions while restricting his own repertoire exclusively to material from the British Isles.

Fontana Records signed Carthy in 1965, and that same year he released his debut album, Martin Carthy, which included his arrangement of “Scarborough Fair” and featured fiddler Dave Swarbrick both as performer and co-arranger. From the outset, Carthy’s recordings functioned as songbooks for countless less experienced or less ambitious folk musicians; in effect he became the Bob Dylan of the English folk revival—free of feigned anger or affectation yet fully equipped with comparable skill and depth. The album also marked the initial public sign of what would develop into a more sustained collaboration with Swarbrick. That partnership commenced formally in March 1966, when the violinist was denied entry by Dutch customs officials en route to Denmark; Carthy proposed a joint tour offering a fifty-fifty division of proceeds. Their recording arrangements proved more intricate, since Carthy remained contractually bound to Fontana as a solo artist and the label declined to alter the agreement, preventing any revenue split on their joint discs during the 1960s—an obstacle that never impaired their professional rapport. Between 1966 and 1969 the pair produced six long-playing albums and one extended-play single, after which Swarbrick departed to join Fairport Convention. Carefully sequenced and recorded—with each new track offering a deliberate contrast, whether a solo vocal by Carthy, a duet, or an a cappella piece—their releases found favor among folk audiences and established both musicians nationally.

Carthy emerged not merely as one of England’s most popular folksingers but as a living musical resource. Unlike most contemporaries, he honored original or at least the earliest documented versions of the songs he performed, returning whenever possible to field recordings made early in the twentieth century. A particular strength lay in locating and completing song fragments that survived only in partial form; this practice added dozens of pieces to the active repertoire, usually performed by musicians unaware of the editorial and musical labor involved, while steering Carthy far from the glossy commercial folk-rock prevalent in the 1960s. Access to primary sources enabled him to perceive subtleties that most rivals overlooked. He also remained willing to record new compositions when they suited the context, and several of his 1960s albums contain songs by his friend, the songwriter Leon Rosselson. Combined with his vocal and guitar abilities, these qualities positioned Carthy as perhaps England’s most consequential folksinger, serving simultaneously as inspiration, conduit for material, and exemplar of how to engage with the tradition.

By 1970 a contemporary ensemble drew Carthy’s attention: Steeleye Span, assembled by Ashley Hutchings, Tim Hart, and Maddy Prior after Hutchings left Fairport Convention. In contrast to Fairport’s mixture of original and traditional songs, Steeleye Span performed traditional folk music on a blend of electric and acoustic instruments, though without a drummer at that stage. Carthy acted as the group’s resident authority and musicologist, supplying many songs he had already recorded during the 1960s. He exited Steeleye Span in 1972 and resumed solo recording that year. Also in 1972 he married Norma Waterson and joined her family’s singing group, the Watersons, with which he has remained active. He further became a member of the Albion Band, the ensemble Hutchings founded in the early 1970s, contributing to the album Battle of the Field. Throughout the 1970s Carthy undertook theater work that eventually led, in the early 1980s, to the formation of Brass Monkey.

He renewed his partnership with Dave Swarbrick during the 1980s, and the two have continued performing and recording together in subsequent decades, releasing Skin & Bone in 1992 and Straws in the Wind in 2006, both on the Topic label. Carthy’s solo albums Right of Passage (1988), Signs of Life (1999), and Waiting for Angels (2004) likewise appeared on Topic. All of his classic albums originally issued on Topic and Fontana remain available on compact disc.