Search - Martin Carthy :: Definitive Collection

The Godfather of Traditional British Folk Music!

Sylviastel | 06/02/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Martin Carthy MBE may not be a household name around the world but I hope he is in his native Britain. His contributions to British folk music has earned him and his wife, Norma Waterson, not only the British honor of MBE (Member of the Order of the British Empire) although separately, they have earned the nickname as the Godparents of British Folk Music. While other folk musicians and singers might sing about modern contemporary issues. Martin, Norma, and their family group which includes their daughter Eliza and a son-in-law known as Waterson Carthy. Regardless, Martin Carthy and the Waterson Carthy group sing classic British ballads that might be lost on us. There are probably hundreds if not thousands of British and Scottish folk ballads that we haven't heard of. I have to thank Martin Carthy MBE for singing and interpreting the British ballads for us. If I teach British ballads, I can have my students hear them as they should have been heard rather than reading the poems in their chairs. It's nice to have Martin Carthy sing for us and he's not for everybody maybe die hard folk fans, Anglophiles who would love to hear what the British would have heard in another time, and for those of us langauge arts instructors to teach ballads. Carthy makes these ballads fun to listen too. His interpretations are faithful to the British folk traditions and to British history if anything else."