Martin & Eliza Carthy
Martin and Eliza Carthy – Beverley Folk Festival, Saturday 21st of June
Saturday was the day of my first summer festival this year. I went across to Beverley especially to see father and daughter Martin and Eliza Carthy perform from their newly released debut album ‘The Moral of the Elephant’. Without fail they were definitely the highlight of the day. The set was comprised of songs from the new album, kicking off with a beautiful song called ‘Happiness’ written by Molly Drake mother of Nick Drake, a lovely gentle start with Martin’s acoustic guitar and Eliza’s seductive vocals. Following this they played a favourite of mine from the new album by the late Michael Marra a song called ‘Monkey Hair’ about a mother who decides not to have any more children because her husband will send them off to war, beautifully sung by Eliza. It’s great to see the two playing together again as they both compliment each other musically and obviously have a very relaxed & warm stage presence, Mr Carthy never takes his eyes off his daughter while she’s playing or singing. A good example of this would be ‘Bows of London’ with Martin’s absolutely spot-on vocals and fabulous fiddle accompaniments by Eliza.
They finished off their set in the same way they end the album with ‘Died for love ‘ this is a tribute to Eliza’s uncle and Martin’s brother-in-law Mike Waterson, the arrangement of the song is as close as they could get to how Mike originally sang it, when I hear it I can imagine Mike singing it with them, utterly beautiful. The audience didn’t want the concert to stop and due to festival restrictions there wasn’t time for an encore but we could have carried on listening to them all night. Martin and Eliza’s album ‘The Moral of the Elephant’ is out now, catch them at the Brudenell Social Club, Leeds on Sunday 29th of June and at Festivals throughout the summer, you will be pleased you did!
Review: Sam Hindley
Edited: Kirsty Bromley
Photo: Chris Hindley
A Night for Lynn-Rockingham Arms Wentworth
Lynn Morawski memorial concert – Rockingham Arms wentworth 6 June 2014
This was a tribute gig for Lynn , who sadly died last year and as Rob Shaw said in his introduction, was his right hand person when running the club here in the almost distant past. And how strange for so many people to be back in the Rockingham Arms barn, complete with Rob’s unique understated intros, for this one off event. Each artist gave their personal tributes to Lynn, including the absent Alan Taylor, who sent a message from Vienna read out by Paul..
Appropriately, Adam and Paul started the night, straight into Lynn’s favourite songs from the Everleys and The Eagles, all done with thoughtful harmonies and much love. An acapella version of Over the Rainbow from Paul & Kelly While really tugged the heart strings. Adam always includes a Dylan song or two – trading verses on My Back Pages showed us how well Paul vocals have developed. A lovely opening set.
Next up was Billy Mitchell, with his son Tom and ex-Lindisfarne mate Ray Laidlaw. We were first treated to a few old Lindisfarne numbers, competently done, interspersed with Billy’s black geordie humour. Tom did a great cover of Michael Marra’s “Frieda Kahlo” and Billy reminded of what a great song writer he is with the “traditional” Pitman and the Black and Coliery Laddie’s Wife. They finished on an old rocker, We can swing together, which had the whole Rock audience swinging their arms high on the chorus – Certainly a first in my experience!
The night’s final act was Chris While and Julie Matthews, joined by Kelly While. From Rob’s introduction, it was apparently Julie who came up with the idea for this tribute gig, and Julie did mention more than once the wave of nostalgia she was feeling about being back in the old folk club venue.
Chris and Julie were straight into familiar territory with On My Way, one of their great optimistic songs done really well. Kelly came in after a couple of songs, the their family combination of the evening, and had the challenge of harmonising with her mum on Baking Bread. She passed successfully! Julie did a lovely tribute to another Rock regular, Roy Machin, with George Jones “She thinks I still care” Other covers include two Gillian Welch songs. Now my Dad is huge fan of Miss Welch and, while he loved to hear the songs he did think they were a little bit too over done compared to the sparse spirituality of the original. His words!!
Springsteen’s “I’m on fire” was something else, much better and in fact really beautifully done. The old motown number “tracks of my tears’ from Chris showed what a fantastic soulful voice she has, and brought another wave of nostalgia for many in the audience. The set finished with that favourite chorus song “Faith”.
Everyone was on stage for the encore, including Rob and Jan perched on the steps, Carole King’s “you got a friend”. A fitting end to a great evening.
All proceeds for the gig were to Rotherham Hospice and MacMillan Nurses
Jim Moray
Jim Moray cast Theatre doncaster, Sunday 25th May
Blair Dunlop
Blair Dunlop the Greystone 28th of May
The Full English 2013
The Wayward Tour
Interview – Heidi Talbot
Sam Hindley catches up with Heidi Talbot at the Sheffield Cathedral.
23rd February 2013
(audio to follow)