Waterson-Carthy

[ellenkushner]

they're on a small US tour (NY state & Vermont) right now - see their website for gig details (remembering that, under the Brit system, 05/03/07 translates as March 5)!

Martin Carthy's music, and the Watersons, were a HUGE HUGE I mean would probably not have written it without them Huge influence on my Thomas the Rhymer and Delia's Through a Brazen Mirror. If you've never heard trad British ballads - or if you love them very much - don't miss them. Plus, they've got charisma to burn. (Oh, and the title -and epigraph - of TPOTS comes from the song "The Dominion of the Sword" - one of my original preferences for a title, btw! - on Carthy's album Right of Passage.) If you can't go, buy albums!

We will be at Symphony Space tom'w night, R Orch row E.

Comments

[nohwhere-man.livejournal.com]

They're amazing & wonderful, but it mightily sucks that they're not doing the west coast anytime soon. Even their 'crossover' stuff is amazing; their version of the American song "Stars in My Crown", is, well, too many superlatives.

[ellen-kushner.livejournal.com]

Agreed!!

The wonder is they're doing US touring at all, considering how few pounds sterling they'll get back for their dollars.

[nbardsley.livejournal.com]

Can you identify two albums for the uninitiated to start with?

[ellen-kushner.livejournal.com]

Glad you asked! Here's what I like - don't know what's in print or hard to get, so will offer choices for you to research:

Watersons: Frost & Fire

Martin Carthy has several "best of" albums available, and all have good material:
"Martin Carthy: The Definitive Collection" (Highpoint/Topic)
Wow - seems to be available for cheap on CDNow! And you can hear sample trax!
http://www.cduniverse.com/productinfo.asp?pid=5692332&BAB=E
Every song (from 30 years of recording) a gem here!
Has "Famous Flower of Servingmen" (plot to Delia's TABM & TTR subplot!) * and* "Dominion of the Sword" - get it!

SHEARWATER was a huge influence on me- seems to be availalbe on CDNow for $9!
http://www.cduniverse.com/productinfo.asp?pid=6880565&BAB=M

[vgqn.livejournal.com]

Envy, envy. I am on the west coast, alas. Carthy's 'Bonnie Lass of Anglesea' is one of my all-time favorite songs. I love the Brass Monkey albums too.

[ellen-kushner.livejournal.com]

Ditto! ditto!

And I forgot to mention that "Anglesea" is the inspiration for Delia's kickin' new story, "The Bonnie Lass of Bayou Teche" (set in Cajun Country, and pitch perfect), coming out in a couple of months in COYOTE ROAD, trickster tales from Datlow & Windling.

[deliasherman.livejournal.com]

Me, too. On both counts. I see Ellen has already shilled "Fiddler of Bayou Teche" below, so I won't. But I do want to say that I love, love, love playing with ballads. Tons of passion, skeleton plot, and no motivations or explanations in sight. A writer's paradise, in fact. I don't think it's any coincidence that I started writing fiction the same year

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Me, too. On both counts. I see Ellen has already shilled "Fiddler of Bayou Teche" below, so I won't. But I do want to say that I love, love, love playing with ballads. Tons of passion, skeleton plot, and no motivations or explanations in sight. A writer's paradise, in fact. I don't think it's any coincidence that I started writing fiction the same year <ljuser=nineweaver> gave me a compendium tape of Martin Carthy's Greatest Hits.

[henrytroup.livejournal.com]

Lines from Martin Carthy's version of Dominion of the Sword wander through my consciousness at odd times. The Carthy (http://www.garrygillard.net/carthy/songs/dominion.html) version is a brilliant mix of traditional (http://www.kickback.btinternet.co.uk/for/The.Bridge/Details.html) verses and contemporary references.

Calm for the worrier, the whaler, the furrier
This'll get the measure of a Rainbow Warrior
Incognito, come and sink a Rainbow
President will never know, I should bloody coco

(Not sure that's entirely correct transcription!) The trad version requires a long scroll down.

[filkerdave.livejournal.com]

ARGH! This is all happening when ExWife is in California and I have to watch my kids!

[ellen-kushner.livejournal.com]

Indeed.

The "traditional," btw, is actually an anonymous political text from ca. 1650 - I've got it here:

http://www.englishcivilwar.com/songs/thedominionofthesword.htm

(Many thanks for the link to the Carthy version! Whoever transcribed it, though, really didn't get the 17c language and punctuated it rather oddly.)

[ellen-kushner.livejournal.com]

They'll be back. They love us here.

[silme.livejournal.com]

Don't hate me. I have tickets for this show in May. :)
http://watersoncarthy.com/images/alberthall.pdf

I'm glad they're touring the US. Before I emigrated, I used to try to see Martin perform as often as possible in the States. My husband and I blame Martin Carthy for our even being together. When we first met (almost exactly eight years ago), he mentioned something about having interviewed Martin Carthy for a radio show he used to do. "You know who Martin Carthy is?" I asked. "You like Martin Carthy?" I pursued, almost incredulous. I'm a Martin Carthy fan indeed. (Back in the '70s, in Philadelphia, I used to listen to the Unicorn show on WXPN, one of the places where you could hear him on the radio in the US then. :)

I moved here in early August 2000. I just made Cropredy that year, and, after that, the first gig I attended was one of Eliza's.

We saw Waterson Carthy in December (with The Devil's Interval) on their 'Holy Heathens' tour. *sigh* Enjoy the show!

[guest-informant.livejournal.com]

Envy envy.

[ellen-kushner.livejournal.com]

Hey - enjoy extra hard, on behalf of all of us!

[silme.livejournal.com]

Will do, and will write up a review. But you -- enjoy your time with them as well. They are just wonderful performers and lovely people. (And I've always that Martin is kind of otherworldly; it's the sort-of elf ears and the face shape. :)

[vgqn.livejournal.com]

Oh, sounds like a great story and a great collection! Thanks for the heads up.

Do you happen to have a copy of 'Out on the Rolling Sea', a tribute to Joseph Spence, with them & Eliza (as Blue Murder) singing 'I Bid You Goodnight'? Marvelous.

[vgqn.livejournal.com]

I never thought about ballads that way before, but you're right, of course. They both tell you so much, yet leave so many details to the imagination. (Not that I'm ever going to write anything -- I express my creativity otherwise. But I appreciate greatly those who do!)

Everyone Listen to These!

[ellen-kushner.livejournal.com]

Yes - one of my favorite albums! The revision of "Kneelin Down Inside the Gate" as the musical battle between Buddha and a disciple (kinda - see actual complete notes to the album here:
http://www.garrygillard.net/carthy/records/rolling.html ) is tops!

http://www.amazon.com/Out-Rolling-Sea-Tribute-Joseph/dp/B000005CTR
has samples for everyone to listen to.

I've used this album on several Sound & Spirit shows. Victoria Williams' "Although the Lord Be High Above" is one of my Top 20 Feel Better songs - based on a Psalm, too, so I got to use it in our Psalms show!

Love Joseph Spence, too: his version of "Sandy Clawrrrr Comin'" is a holiday fave.

All this reminiscence has sent me back to "Kneelin' Down Inside the Gate: The Great Rhyming Singers of the Bahamas" (Rounder CD 5035). Wowza.

[pdcawley.livejournal.com]

That version of 'Stars in my Crown' is pretty much a full on Watersons production that just happens to be on a Waterson:Carthy album.

[pdcawley.livejournal.com]

The latest Waterson:Carthy album, Holy Heathens and the Old Green Man is utterly splendid as well.

[ellen-kushner.livejournal.com]

Ooooooooooh! Have to look for that!