Eliza Carthy, Dreams of Breathing Underwater (Topic Records, 2008)

From the perspective of a fan of English folk music, Eliza Carthy has royal blood. Indeed, she first came to prominence singing and fiddling in Waterson: Carthy with her parents Norma Waterson and Martin Carthy, both of whom were stars in the English folk scene well before Eliza was born. Most of her solo recordings have been folk albums as well, but every so often she makes an album where her adventurous streak comes out in full force. Such is the case with her latest effort, called Dreams of Breathing Underwater.

The album begins strongly, with the song "Follow the Dollar," a commentary on young people obsessed with pop culture. Carthy plays a souped up tenor guitar, and deftly blurs the distinction between the chorus "follow the dollar all the day" and the Irish lilt "fol lol the doh fol the day." From there, Dreams of Breathing Underwater jumps around the musical map. "Two Tears" staggers along like a Tom Waits song, only with better singing. "Mr. Magnifico" combines salsa horns with a story narrated by Tim Matthew with a thick brogue. "Like I Care (Wings)" has a Caribbean feel, complete with a hyper ska chorus. The album closes with a sing-along standard with the strange but fun title "Oranges and Seasalt." To go with the diverse musical styles, Carthy and her songwriting partner Ben Ivitsky both play a variety of instruments on the album. While I could certainly understand if some listeners would have liked to hear more of Carthy's fiddling, Carthy and Ivitsky never sound overmatched on whatever instruments they play.

Carthy can really sing as well, and her vocals shine on songs like "Rosalie" and a cover of Rory Macleod's "Hug You Like a Mountain." As she's gotten older, Carthy's voice has taken on more of the jovial warmth that Norma Waterson always brings to her songs. (I suppose she might find the insinuation that she's turning into her mother a bit unsettling, but I mean it as a compliment.)

Eliza Carthy is never dull with her music, and it's always worth a few listens to hear what she's been up to. Dreams of Breathing Underwater is worth more than a few listens, as it's one of her strongest albums to date.

Overall grade: A-

reviewed by Scott

A live performance of "Like I Care (Wings)"

Reprinted with permission from The Green Man Review
Copyright 2009 The Green Man Review

Watherson: Carthy, Holy Heathens and the Old Green Man (Topic Records, 2006)

Norma Waterson was renowned for being part of the English family folk group The Watersons when she married guitarist Martin Carthy. Carthy had built up a large reputation in folk circles as a solo artist, in duets with legendary English fiddler Dave Swarbrick, and as a member of the folk/rock outfit Steeleye Span. (From a pop perspective, his claim to fame is that he taught Paul Simon how to play "Scarborough Fair" when Simon lived in London for a year in the early sixties.) The Watersons regrouped in 1972 after a brief hiatus with Carthy joining them, and Waterson and Carthy have been musical as well as romantic partners ever since. For the past decade, that has meant performing as the group Waterson: Carthy with their fiddling daughter Eliza Carthy and more recently with accordionist Tim van Eyken. Their latest project, called Holy Heathens and the Old Green Man, compiles secular and religious traditional English songs celebrating Christmas and the New Year. The vocal group The Devil's Interval joins Waterson: Carthy for many of the pieces, providing extra punch to some big, sing-along choruses.

Holy Heathens and the Old Green Man largely succeeds because of the fun, celebratory feel of many of the songs. While the harmonies in the group sing-a-longs could have been tighter, they do convey to the listener the sense of being at a feast in an old hall during the holiday season. None of the material would be immediately obvious to a pop music fan, although a few of the melodies are structured similarly to "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen." Martin Carthy's voice unfortunately shows some wear, but Waterson's distinctively jovial voice remains firmly intact and carries much of the album. The quieter material on the album is dominated by a pair of songs sung by Eliza, "Jack Frost" and the gospel song "Gloryland." Eliza continues to ably balance her fine solo career with her work with her parents, and shines in both contexts.

The music of Waterson: Carthy is unrepentantly traditional. Fans of old English folk songs, especially the Christmas carols, will enjoy Holy Heathens and the Old Green Man. Given how the same Christmas songs tend to get played over and over again starting earlier in November every year, whether they're any good or not, Waterson: Carthy breath some life into a wholly stagnant genre ironically by resurrecting older material that actually has some quality to it.

Overall grade: B

Eliza Carthy, Rough Music (Topic Records, 2005)

Despite her young age, Eliza Carthy has already thrust herself into the highest ranks of the English folk music scene. The daughter of legendary folk musicians Martin Carthy and Norma Waterson, she is equally comfortable performing with her parents in the group Waterson Carthy and as a solo artist. Carthy has tried a lot of different things on her solo albums, from working with a full electric band on Angels and Cigarettes to trying out different combinations of performers on the more purely folk Anglicana. On her latest album Rough Music, Carthy enlists the services of a backing band which named themselves the Ratcatchers. Ben Ivitsky (viola and guitar), John Boden (fiddle and double bass), and John Spiers (melodeon) complement Carthy's vocals and fiddle perfectly, and the result is Carthy's strongest solo record to date. Most of the material is traditional, excepting one original song "Mohair" and a cover of Billy Bragg's "King James Version." Carthy has always had an excellent voice, and the songs on Rough Music meet her previous standards, but she and the Ratcatchers shine the brightest on the instrumentals. The standout track is "Cobbler's Hornpipe," a 3/2 hornpipe from the north of England played like an energetic Scandinavian polska. Rough Music is a fine example of how traditional music can sound fresh, exciting, and even innovative when performed by a combination of creative and talented musicians who have a great chemistry together.

Overall grade: B+