Eliza Carthy, daughter of Martin Carthy and Norma Waterson, is the most impressive and engaging performer of her generation. Not only an inventive, innovative singer and fiddle-player, she is a musical conceptualist who treats the bequest of the folk tradition with respect and knowledge - and, sometimes, with refreshing irreverence.

"An international star of English Folk in the 21st century" The Times

ELIZA CARTHY ROUGH MUSIC TSCD554

‘Rough Music’ is a step on from the multi-award winning ‘Anglicana’, and is a powerful, vital, multi-layered collection full of dark rhythms in Eliza’s vision of English Traditional Music for the new millennium. Her backing band, The Ratcatchers, includes her long time collaborator Ben Ivitsky, and two of the fastest rising stars of the folk scene, Jon Boden and John Spiers.
The album features dense arrangements of traditional songs showcasing Eliza’s incomparable voice as well as spirited, highly original performances of English instrumental music. Billy Bragg’s ‘King James Version’ and Eliza’s own ‘Mohair ‘complete the unique blend of old and new.

The title notwithstanding, there is nothing rough about the quality of the music – Eliza has taken the name of the album from an age-old custom and she explains it…..
“Rough Music is in the Book of Days on October 28th and is described as a form of community punishment practiced all over England. If a man were seen to be (say) beating his wife, or ‘allowing himself to be hen-pecked’ it says here, he could expect to receive a concert of Rough Music. Basically if they thought you had been naughty (it doesn’t say how or if they proved this) all the men, women and children of the village would go round to your house in the middle of the night, call out your name and proceed to bang pots, pans, tin lids and buckets or whatever came to hand, to bring your crimes to attention and drive you out. When my family moved to North Yorkshire at the beginning of the seventies there was a case of a man being driven from our area by this method. However, we’ve tried to make the album a bit nicer than that."

1 Turpin Hero
2 King James Version
3 Cobbler's Hornpipe
4 Gallant Hussar
5 Upside Down (Double Lead Through + Highland Mary + Dear Tobacco)
6 Mohair
7 The Unfortunate Lass
8 Scan Tester's Country Stepdance + Lemmy Brazil's No.2
9 Maid On The Shore
10 Mr McCusker & Mr McGoldrick's English Choice
11 Tom Brown

Eliza Carthy fiddle, singing, guitar

The Ratcatchers:
John Boden fiddle, singing, double bass, guitar, concertina, percussion
Ben Ivitsky viola, singing, guitar, low whistle, hurdy-gurdy
John Spiers melodeon, singing, one-row accordion, bandoneon

Heather Macleod singing
Mattie Foulds snare & lemon drums
Fay Hield singing
Mary Hampton singing
Lorna MacDonald bass trombone
Willy Mollesonsinging

ELIZA CARTHY ANGLICANA TSCD539

Eliza Carthy's return to Topic Records, with a great new traditional album re-affirming her as one of the most important artists of her generation. As the title suggests, Anglicana is an expression of Englishness (as Eliza feels it), "with people who were around at the time, no border checkpoints, nobody pushed out, just what it is".

It is built on the solid foundations of the traditional music of the country of her birth. There is no question that she has absorbed much of the great qualities of that tradition, but she is not interested in producing pastiche or sterile re-construction. She is one of the few people who can take this wonderful music and perform it in a totally convincing contemporary style - both true to its sources and firmly relevant to today's values. This is what traditional music in the twenty-first century is all about!

• "Brilliant – proper music, not museum art – her voice has never sounded fuller"
The Independent
• "her most majestic and mature solo album yet" fROOTS
• "faultless" www.Amazon.co.uk
• "Best folk album of the year" Mojo
Nominated for BBC Radio 2 Folk Album of the Year
Nominated for BBC Radio 3 World Music Album of the Year

1 Worcester City
2 Just As The Tide was Flowing
3 Limbo
4 Little Gypsy Girl
5 No Man's Jig + Hanoverian Dance + Three Jolly Sheepskins
6 Pretty Ploughboy
7 Bold Privateer
8 Dr McMBE
9 In London So Fair
10 Willow Tree

Eliza Carthy fiddle, piano, vocals
John Spiers melodeon
John Boden fiddle
Donald MacDougal guitar
Barnaby Stradling acoustic bass
Donald Hay drums & percussion
Ben Ivitsky viola
Tim van Eyken melodeon, guitar, harmonica
Norma Waterson vocals
Maria Gilhooley vocals
Will Duke concertina
Dan Quinn melodeon
Tom Salter electric guitar
Martin Carthy guitar
Martin Green piano accordion
Heather Macleod vocals
Mary Macmaster vocals

ELIZA CARTHY RED TSCD493

1 Accordion Song: Accidental Saturday Night Kitchen Mix
2 10,000 Miles
3 Billy Boy / The Widdow's Wedding
4 Time in the Son
5 Stumbling On
6 Stingo / The Stacking Reel
7 Greenwood Laddie / Mrs Capron's Reel / Tune
8 Walk Away
9 Adieu, Adieu
10 Russia
Call Waiting
11 Red Rice

Eliza Carthy fiddle, singing, one-row accordion, keyboards
Martin Green piano accordion, keyboards
Barnaby Stradling electric & acoustic bass, percussion, Moog
Sam Thomas drums, percussion, Moog
Ed Boyd acoustic guitar
Olly Knight electric guitar
Shack & Paul programming
Lucy Adams backing vocals
Rory McLeod harmonica
Andy Thorburn guest keyboards

ELIZA CARTHY RICE TSCD494

1 Blow the Winds / The Game of Draughts
2 The Snow It Melts the Soonest
3 Picking Up Sticks / The Old Mole / Felton Lonnin / Kingston Girls
4 Miller & the Lass
5 Herring Song
6 Mons Meg
7 Tuesday Morning
8 Haddock & Chips
9 The Americans Have Stolen My True Love Away
10 Zycanthos Jig / Tommy's Foot / Quebecois
11 The Sweetness of Mary / Holywell Hornpipe / Swedish
12 Benjamin Bowmaneer
13 Commodore Moore / The Black Dance / A Andy O

Eliza Carthy fiddle, viola, piano, djembe, singing
Saul Rose melodeon, one-row accordion, singing
Ed Boyd acoustic guitar, bouzouki
Eleanor Waterson singing
Lucy Adams feet, clogs, singing
Billericay Fontenot guitar, singing
Thorngumbold Fontenot singing

ELIZA CARTHY & THE KINGS OF CALICUTT TSCD489

1 Trip:Trip to Fowley / Cuckold Came Out of the Amery / Indian Queen
2 Whirly: Whirly Whorl
3 Bonaparte's: Bonaparte's Retreat
4 Tractor: Little Bear / Wobbly Cat / Upton Stick Dance
5 Mother: Mother, Go Make My Bed / Flower of Swiss Cottage
6 Mr Walker: Good Morning, Mr Walker
7 Sea: Holm Band Tune / Dave Roberts' Tune / Jemima's Jig
8 Sheffield: Sheffield Park / Polly Bishop's Slip Jig / Roger De Coverley
9 Fisher: Fisher Boy
10 Storyteller: If You Will Not Have Me, You May Let Me Go / The Pullet /
The Storyteller

Eliza Carthy fiddle, viola, mandolin, singing, the other wah
The Kings are:
Andi Wells drums
Barnaby Stradling bass
Saul Rose melodeon, singing
Maclaine Colston hammered dulcimer, singing, snare, wah

ELIZA CARTHY HEAT LIGHT & SOUND TSCD482

The most accomplished and adventurous debut album the British folk scene has witnessed in more than 20 years, Heat Light & Sound declares Eliza Carthy's talent as a singer and fiddler in songs and tunes from the British tradition.

'A superbly assured debut album.' - The Observer
'The future of British folk music.' - Mojo

1 Cold, Wet & Rainy Night / The Grand Hornpipe
2 Cumberland Waltz / Petit Homme / Miss Bowls'
3 What a Beau Your Granny is / Stone Steps
4 Ten Thousand Miles / Bacca Pipes
5 Clark Saunders
6 Stamps for the Dog
7 Peggy
8 Blind Fiddler
9 Lady Barnsley's Fancy / Trip to Cartmel / Hardy's Crow
10 By Then
11 Sheath & Knife
12 Jacky Tar

Eliza Carthy vocals, fiddle, monster and five string fiddle
Dylan Clarke double bass, vocals, percussion
Martin Ellison melodeon
James Fagan bouzouki, vocals
Thorn Fontenot triangle
Olly Knight electric guitar
Dan Plews guitar
Barnaby Stradling bass guitar
Sam Thomas drums, percussion, vocals
Jock Tyldesley fiddle
Hazel Wrigley keyboard

Press Reviews

TSCD 539 "Anglicana"
• "Shining like a beacon – her glorious new album Anglicana. She’s returned to Topic with a superb collection of English songs gleaned from ancient recordings and dusty manuscripts, into which she’s breathed new life – her voice just gets better, now with a depth range and scope to tell the big ballads affectingly. This is traditional folk at its most atmospheric, performed with a feeling of spontaneity." Time Out
• "This immensely talented fiddle player and singer takes her inspiration from the stunning 20-volume – The Voice of the People series by Topic. The epic ballad In London so Fair puts her among the best of the new generation of British female folk singers. Bawdy, sexy and beautiful, just as good folk music should be." Morning Star
• "Bravura vocals and brilliant arrangements – she has come into her own as a mature but audacious interpreter of traditional music." Billboard
• "Carthy sings with pressing immediacy, her voice buoyed by surging acoustic arrangements." The Guardian
• "Brilliant – proper music, not museum art – her voice has never sounded fuller" The Independent
• "The playing is immaculate, as is the singing. It’s a downright fine CD." BBC Radio Nottingham
• "Searing and adventurous" London Evening Standard
• "As remarkable for the vitality and originality of the settings as for the new maturity in her singing – magnificent" The Guardian
• "Confidence and power shine out of her, and it makes her music shine too" The Times
• "She has recorded ten stark pieces to draw you in with an irresistible pull – deploying the undeniably dramatic power of her incredible voice" Sunday Times
• "..her fiddle playing is of international stature…a singer of real lasting quality" All Music Guide
• "A compelling set, remarkable for the subtle dramatic settings and the new maturity in her singing
The Guardian
• "(Eliza Carthy) remains a phenomenon…a winner." The Observer
• "Album of the Year" Financial Times
• "A must-have album" Folk London
• "I have to say from the outset that this record is a delight in every sense of the word….Eliza Carthy is fulfilling every hope we had in her, producing fine traditional music with a modern approach, yet retaining the very essence that makes the songs and tunes so attractive." Living Tradition
• "Anglicana finds Carthy happily merging two sensibilities, one grounded in yesteryear and the other hailing the future – with pleasing results." Sing Out
• "She possesses a voice that takes you right in there – her choice of songs is impeccable. If this is the future of English folk song, buy me a front row seat now" BBC Radio 2 Folk & Acoustic reviews

Others
• "First-rate. She knows her sources and absorbs them into her own music with complete confidence and, on this album, she cuts a connoisseur's swathe through a mother lode of English song. The result is a tour de force, both instrumentally and vocally. This disc is a testament of faith in the poetry and power of English folk song in the 21st century. A "Top of the World" choice." Songlines
• "Audaciously brilliant" The Observer
• "An international star of English Folk in the next century" The Times
• "The ideas are incessant, the technique superb and the energy irresistible" fROOTS
• "Eliza Carthy has probably made the best folk album of this year" (Red Rice) Uncut
• "Seriously impressive skills shine through" Daily Telegraph
• "What's brilliant about Eliza is that she's such a great mixture of past and present: totally dedicated to the tradition and simultaneously full of innovation." BBC Radio 2