A monumental career-spanning box set covering six decades of England’s pre-eminent folk singer in live performances, solo and in various collaborations.
So what more is there to say about Martin Carthy, one of, if not *the* towering artist of English folk music over the last 60-plus years, one of its most influential interpreters whether via his solo output, or via his various collaborations, in particular with Steeleye Span, the Albion Band or The Watersons (with his wife Norma Waterson, herself an outstanding folk singer), or his longstanding partnership with fiddler Dave Swarbrick, or through his warm expressive voice or his sometime quite exquisite acoustic guitar playing.
Born in 1941, Carthy began to be noticed, after working for a while in theatre, when he started singing traditional folk songs at The Troubadour Club near Earl’s Court in London. He released his first self-titled album in 1965 at the age of twenty-four, to much critical acclaim as an interpreter of English folk music in a more contemporary style. His interpretive skills were evident from the very first album and thereafter throughout his many collaborations, totalling more than 40 albums in his almost 60-year career, including 10 solo albums. His influence was also evident from his first album, which included a version of the traditional song Scarborough Fair, his arrangement of which was ‘stolen’ by Paul Simon for inclusion in Simon and Garfunkel’s folksy offering Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme in 1966. Bob Dylan was a big fan of Carthy; he wrote in 2025, “If you didn’t know, your songs and your melodies have been with me since we first met”. Carthy sang a number of songs that featured in Bob Dylan’s early albums. Richard Thompson was also influenced considerably by Carthy, who, during his career, was the winner of, or nominee for, many awards for his album tracks, his albums and his sheer presence; Folk Artist of the Year, twice awarded by the BBC, a lifetime achievement award and, in 1998, an MBE for his contribution to folk music.
In 2025 he released his latest album, Transform Me Then Into a Fish, a reinvention of his debut album which led to a Mercury Prize nomination at the age of 84. Sadly, later last year he was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s and had to give up recording and performing. Performing was his speciality, and it is a sign of the importance of the artist that the BBC had been recording many of his live and session performances over the years, leading to a monumental presentation, Along the Road Forever – Live at the BBC, a landmark 20-CD box set, with more than 22 1/2 hours of music across 328 tracks. In largely chronological order it covers live sessions on the John Peel Show (1973-77) several onstage albums covering performances right up to 2014 at Loughborough Festival, Cambridge Folk Festival, Sidmouth Festival, St Alban’s Folk Club and Folk on 2, live tracks with Swarbrick on Folk on 2 and The Lemon Tree, Glastonbury Live with his daughter Eliza Carthy in 1995, live with Norma Waterson for his 60th Birthday in 2001, and further studio sessions from 1995 to 2004 on various BBC programmes and at the Cambridge Folk Festival. The whole is curated beautifully, as it includes DJ and presenter introductions, much audience banter, some of it very amusing and some informative about a forthcoming song. The sound is very good indeed, as you might expect from a BBC production.
It is almost impossible to critique this ‘package’ which also includes an 80-page book, with unseen photos and detailed annotations. The music is as you would expect, various versions of multiple songs, arranged in a variety of ways with many voices and instruments, often several years apart. To pick a highlight is impossible; Carthy fans will know nearly all of them anyway, if not in these iterations, except for more than a handful of songs not recorded on any album, but totally in keeping with Carthy’s artistic vision.
There are occasional sideroads taken, with an acapella version of Buddy Holly’s Rave On, or the gospel song Farther Along (famously recorded by The Byrds) or even Gilbert O’Sullivan’s Nothing Rhymed.
Carthy was a hard taskmaster to himself, always looking to improve, innovate and rearrange songs. His well-received 1974 album Sweet Wivelsfield, a rather sparse affair with just guitar and voice, led him to reassess his singing style and guitar playing. This ‘journey’ can be heard over the life of these live tracks. To take just one example, the Three Jolly Sneaksmen from Loughborough Festival in 1973 is somewhat different from the same song at Sidmouth Festival in 1999, recognisably the same song but with more intricate guitar and vocal stylings. Or the interpretation of the well-known death ballad John Barleycorn from 1973 in acapella form, and a duet version with daughter Eiza on a Radio 3 programme in 2020, where the arrangement and his vocal interpretation vary enormously,
In that sense, this collection is an important ‘document’ exploring the 60-year live output from one of the great folk artists, and many thanks should go to the BBC for keeping these important performances in their vaults, because they provide an important counterpoint to the studio recordings of Carthy and his collaborators, as well as defining the development in the man’s musical style. Completists will be delighted by these essential recordings.
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