The longstanding folk musician Martin Carthy will play a special show at London’s EartH on 27 September, alongside a number of guests including Billy Bragg, Graham Coxon, Peggy Seeger, Maddy Prior, Marry Waterson, and many more.
Titled The Life and Songs of Martin Carthy, the night will draw on Carthy’s enormous and influential back catalogue, including work in collaboration with Dave Swarbrick, as part of Albion Country Band, Steeleye Span, The Watersons, Brass Monkey, The Imagined Village, Waterson:Carthy and more.
It comes following the release of his latest album, Transform Me Then Into A Fish, this month, which marked his 84th birthday and saw him reinterpret music from his much-loved 1965 debut LP.
The EartH show is programmed by Broadside Hacks, with more guests still to be announced.
Its genesis came during a tour Carthy undertook alongside the musician and writer Jon Wilks in 2023. Wilks told tQ: “Around the time we were touring in 2023, there were a couple of Bert Jansch tribute concerts. They were wonderful – I went to the first one back in 2013 – but it’s a sad thing to be paying tribute to someone after they’re gone.
“It just occurred to me that it would be much nicer if Martin could see how much people appreciate who he is and what he’s done for those of us that live for folk music. He really disliked the idea at first. He hates being called a legend. He doesn’t even like admitting that he’s had a career! But I could see that there was some part of him that had begun to warm to the idea, so I started hounding him about it.
“Once I got Eliza [Carthy, musician and Martin’s daughter] onside, he kind of crumbled. I kicked the idea around for a while, trying to find someone to help me put it on. When I eventually mentioned it to Campbell [Baum of Broadside Hacks], he jumped at the idea and, within a couple of days, we had meetings with venues set up. Campbell makes things happen!
“We’ve had good help from ABM and from the Carthy family, too. And the artists have all been hugely into the idea. It has come together really easily, and we’re already past 80 per cent on ticket sales so people need to move quickly if they want to come along!””
Tickets and full details on the show can be found here. The full list of performers announced thus far is below:
Martin Carthy
Billy Bragg
Graham Coxon
Peggy Seeger
Maddy Prior
Martin Simpson
Marry Waterson
Tim van Eyken
Angeline Morrison
Emily Portman
Nick Hart
John Kirkpatrick
Calum MacColl
Sheema Mukherjee
Goblin Band
Jon Wilks
