Martin Carthy

Along the Road Forever - Live at the Bbc Martin Carthy

The most comprehensive Martin Carthy collection ever assembled – 20 CD box set featuring live and session performances recorded for the BBC over a 57-year period. Includes an 80-page hardback book with an essay by celebrated biographer Clinton Heylin covering Martin’s entire life in music, plus unseen photos — many from Martin’s personal archive — separate session notes by renowned Carthy chronicler Kevin Boyd, and a photograph signed by Martin.

Though he eschews such terms himself, few would deny that Martin Carthy MBE is the godfather of English folk – a singer, tradition bearer and guitar stylist of colossal quality and influence with 60 years of celebrated recorded work as a solo artist, as a duettist with Dave Swarbrick and with his daughter Eliza Carthy, and as a member of ground-breaking ensembles Steeleye Span, the Albion Country Band, Brass Monkey, the Watersons, Waterson: Carthy & Wood, Wilson, Carthy.

All of these collaborations and more are represented in this stunning collection from Martin’s extraordinarily extensive career of interactions with the British Broadcasting Corporation – as a studio session guest and concert performer over a span of 1965–2022, across BBC Radios 1, 2, 3 & 4 and BBC television, with early performances from 1960s regional channel ABC TV as a bonus. What survives of Martin’s BBC output is perhaps a fraction of what once aired over the course of nearly 56 years of moments on the usually ephemeral medium of broadcasting, yet its range and heft is remarkable – an alternative career history and testament to a truly singular artistry: 22½ hours, 328 tracks (two thirds from a master source) of which there are 237 distinct items of repertoire.

The troubadour, the folk-rocker, the guitar hero, the acapella master, the champion of songs from the people, the voice of history, the wit and raconteur, Martin Carthy seemingly walked the road forever, never strayed far from the folk clubs and never sold out. This limited edition set – lovingly curated by Colin Harper – includes a lavishly illustrated 80-page hardback book with essays by Clinton Heylin & Kevin Boyd, a 1971 Keith Morris photograph signed by Martin & 20 discs of audio magic mastered by Pete Reynolds. With your hosts John Peel, Suzy Klein, Andy Kershaw, Jim Lloyd & further denizens of Broadcasting House, here is Martin Carthy providing, time after time, plentiful evidence for those who would – despite his protestations – call him a legend.

Disc 1: Studio sessions 1973–77 Sounds of the 70s, 1973 (Albion Country Band), John Peel, 1974, 1976, 1977 (all Martin solo)

Disc 2: Onstage 1973–7 Folkweave, 1973, 1974, 1975, 1977 – live at St Albans Folk Club, Loughborough Festival and Cambridge Folk Festival (all Martin solo)

Disc 3: Onstage 1977–78 Folk ’78 and Folkweave – live at Sidmouth Folk Festival 1978 and 1979 (all Martin solo)

Disc 4: Onstage 1979–1986 Sidmouth Folk Festival 1979 (Martin solo), Cambridge Folk Festival 1982 (Brass Monkey), Folk on 2 concert 1983 (Brass Monkey)

Disc 5: Onstage 1981–83 Stagfolk, Godalming 1981, Fylde Folk Festival 1982, Pontardawe Folk Festival 1983 (all Martin solo)

Disc 6: Studio sessions 1983–88 John Peel 1983 (Martin solo), Andy Kershaw 1987 (Martin solo), Andy Kershaw 1988 (The Watersons), Andy Kershaw 1988 (Martin solo), Folk on 2 1987 (Martin & Chris Wood)

Disc 7: Onstage 1984–1990 Whitby Festival 1985 (Martin solo), BBC Radio Sussex 1984 (Martin solo), Salisbury Arts Centre 1990 (Martin & Dave Swarbrick)

Disc 8: Martin Carthy & Dave Swarbrick: Studio sessions & onstage 1988–97 Folk on 2 1988, 1989, 1997, Andy Kershaw 1990, Belfast Festival c. 1988

Disc 9: Martin & Eliza Carthy: Glastonbury Festival, 1995

Disc 10: Studio sessions 1995–97 Andy Kershaw 1995 (Waterson:Carthy), Folk on 2 1997 (Martin solo – alt takes), Folk on 2 1997 (Martin & Dave Swarbrick – alt takes)

Disc 11: Studio sessions 1997–2004 Folk on 2 1997, Andy Kershaw 2004 (all Martin solo)

Disc 12: Onstage 1990–99 Sidmouth Folk Festival 1990 (The Watersons), Sidmouth Folk Festival 1992 (Martin solo), Rare Music Club, Bristol 1997 (Wood, Wilson, Carthy), Cambridge Folk Festival 1999 (Martin solo)

Disc 13: Onstage 1999 Sidmouth Folk Festival 1999 (part 1) (Martin solo)

Disc 14: Onstage 1999 / 1986 Sidmouth Folk Festival 1999 (part 2) (Martin solo), Butlin’s, Bognor Regis 1986 (Brass Monkey)

Disc 15: Martin Carthy with Norma Waterson: 60th Birthday Concert, 2001 Alhambra Theatre, Bradford

Disc 16: Onstage 2005–14 BBC Folk Awards 2005 (Martin with Martin Simpson & Paul Sartin), The Barbican 2005 (Martin solo), The Barbican 2006 (Martin solo), The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan – A Folk Tribute 2011 (Martin solo), Front Row 2011 (Martin & Eliza Carthy), In Tune 2012 (Martin with the Aurora Orchestra), Cambridge Folk Festival 2013 (Martin & Dave Swarbrick), BBC Folk Awards 2014 (Martin & Eliza Carthy)

Disc 17: Studio Sessions 2014–22 Jools Holland 2011 (Martin & Jools Holland Ensemble), World on 3 2014 (Martin & Eliza Carthy), Bob Fisher, BBC Radio Tees 2017 (Martin solo), In Tune 2020 (Martin & John Kirkpatrick), In Tune 2020 (Martin & Eliza Carthy), Music Planet 2022 (Martin & Eliza Carthy)

Disc 18: 1963–68 Songs from Hullaballoo (ABC TV 1963) (Martin with Bob Davenport, Rory McEwen, Lisa Turner), Songs from Hallelujah (ABC TV, 1966) (Martin with the Johnny Scott Trio), London Folk Song Cellar 1966 (Martin solo; Martin & Dave Swarbrick; Martin & Rory McEwen; Martin & Isla Cameron), Once More with Felix 1967 (Martin & Dave Swarbrick), Degrees of Folk 1968 (Martin & Dave Swarbrick)

Disc 19: Steeleye Span: 1970–71 Top Gear 1970, John Peel Sunday Concert 1971, Sounds of the 70s 1970, 1971

Disc 20: Bonus: off-air 1966–73 Hallelujah (ABC TV) 1966 (Martin solo), Wonderful Copenhagen 1967 (Martin & Dave Swarbrick), My Kind of Folk 1968 (Martin & Dave Swarbrick), Folk on Friday 1971 (Martin solo), John Peel 1972 (Martin solo), unidentified TV show 1972 (Martin & Dave Swarbrick), John Peel 1973 (Martin solo)