News / Folk legend Carthy to visit
LEGENDARY English folk musician and songwriter Martin Carthy is to make his maiden visit to Shetland shortly after his 75th birthday as part of an extensive UK tour this summer.
Carthy will play a solo show, with local support, at the Legion in Lerwick on Friday 24 June.
Since the mid 1960s he has been lauded as a top class singer-songwriter, with the likes of Bob Dylan and Paul Simon citing him as an influence.
His arrangement of the traditional folk song ‘Scarborough Fair’ was adapted – apparently without permission – and turned into a hit by Simon and Garfunkel, a dispute only resolved when Simon himself invited Carthy to sing the song with him on the Hammersmith Apollo stage in 2000.
A renowned solo performer with a strong percussive guitar style emphasising melody, he has twice been a member of the band Steeleye Span, and played alongside members of Fairport Convention in the Albion Country Band.
He is a long-term musical partner of Fairport’s acclaimed fiddler Dave Swarbrick, and also regularly teams up with his wife Norma Waterson and daughter Eliza Carthy in the Waterson-Carthy group.
Throughout his career Carthy has followed an “insatiable musical curiosity rather than cash in on his unrivalled position”. In 2014 he was given a lifetime achievement award at the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards, and he has also been awarded an MBE.
Davie Gardner of Atlantic Edge Music Services, which is promoting the local show, said: “It would not be overstating the fact to say that Martin Carthy is a legend in global folk music circles, so I’m delighted to be able to bring him to Shetland for this one-off special show.
“His talents and influences speak for themselves in every respect, so this should hopefully make for another memorable night of music in the isles.”
- Tickets for the show (over 16s only) go on sale through Shetland Box Office at 10am on Friday 8 April priced £15.
Become a member of Shetland News
Shetland News is asking its many readers to consider paying for membership to get additional features and services: -
- Remove non-local ads;
- Bookmark posts to read later;
- Exclusive curated weekly newsletter;
- Hide membership messages;
- Comments open for discussion.
If you appreciate what we do and feel strongly about impartial local journalism, then please become a member of Shetland News by either making a single payment, or setting up a monthly, quarterly or yearly subscription.
Already a member? Sign in to hide this message.
