Eliza Carthy might be the headliner but judging by the crowd’s response and their departure mid way through her set, Emily Barker and the Red Clay Halo are clearly the band of the night. Musically the two can’t be further apart, Emily fusing low key harmonies over sweeping strings and a quiet presence, whilst Eliza is fuelled by up tempo rhythms and anecdotal stories.
Whether it’s opener Billowing Sea or Wallander theme tune Nostalgia, Emily and her band combine heartfelt emotion with rousing melodies, transporting you off to another world. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the...
Photos of Eliza Carthy at The Lexington, London on 27th February 2012. Taken by Jo Cox – www.jocoxphotography.co.uk
...
MTTM caught up with Eliza Carthy before her Oxford tour date last month to talk about her latest album, Neptune, and attitudes towards classifying music.
More Than The Music: Some of the latest album is quite wacky, it’s almost like folk on LSD. How on earth did you come up with that, particularly the likes of Britain Is A Carpark?
Eliza Carthy: I don’t know. I don’t see any difference between what I do with my self written stuff and what I do with the traditional stuff in terms of the music and the arranging. When I’ve made fiddle and accordion albums for the...
The Academy is a bit of a toughie if you’re not an up and coming indie band and I have to say that of all the venues in Oxford, it’s not the one I expected to see Eliza Carthy performing in. A testament to her then that the place was pretty much packed out.
Proving that even the most consummate of professionals slip up sometimes it quickly emerged that she’d forgotten her accordion. Laughing it off and ducking backstage usually wouldn’t be any kind of problem, however coupled with the stifling heat it left her battling a restless crowd who took at least until the...
Photos of Eliza Carthy at O2 Academy, Oxford on 8th July 2011. Taken by Jo Cox – www.jocoxphotography.co.uk
...
When your parents are English folk legends Martin Carthy and Norma Waterson, you’d expect to inherit enough talent to get by on. But for Eliza Carthy, who started performing with her mother, aunt and cousin at the tender age of thirteen, it seems there is much more going on than just impressive parents. Part of what has made her so successful is her ability to reinvent herself, from dying her hair wild colours to experimenting with a range of musical ensembles and styles. Rewarded with 2 Mercury Prize nominations, 3 BBC2 Folk Awards and even a BBC3 World Music Award of her own she has...
