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