Martin Carthy, English folk pioneer and national treasure, celebrates his 70th birthday at the Royal Festival Hall next weekend, and here’s a two disc career overview.
The hypnotic, chunky, acoustic guitar style arrives fully-formed on the earliest tracks, from ’65 and ’66, pulsating round the purloined ur-folk licks on which Paul Simon and Bob Dylan built their breakthroughs.
Psychically sympathetic modal duets with the fiddler Dave Swarbrick remain timelessly intense.
By a 2004 reading of Famous Flower Of Serving Men, ten minutes of head-drone render contemporary acid folk obsolete, and Carthy’s once reedy vocal has a Methuselaic authority, his playing flowing like blood.
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Someoneyoudon'tknow, Chortle.com
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Dick Socrates, Twitter
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Genghis McKahn, Guardian.co.uk
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Anon, BBC Complaints Log
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Rowing Rob, Guardian.co.uk
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Carla, St Albans, Dailymail.co.uk
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BBC iPlayer edition of discussion of Stewart Lee on A Good Read
BBC iPlayer edition of discussion of Stewart Lee on A Good Read
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Yukio Mishima, dontstartmeoff.com
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Henry Howard Fun, Twitter
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GRTak, finalgear.com
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