Martin Carthy

If the English folk revival of the 1960s had a single "father" and guiding spirit, then Martin Carthy was it. Carthy's influence transcends his abilities, formidable though those are -- apart from being one of the most talented acoustic guitarists, mandolinists, and general multi-instrumentalists working the folk clubs in the 1960s, he was also a powerful singer with no pretentions or affectations, and was an even more prodigious arranger and editor, with an excellent ear for traditional compositions. In particular, he was as much a scholar as a performer, and frequently went back to the notes and notebooks of folksong collectors such as Percy Grainger, scouring them for fragments that could be made whole in performance -- no second hander, he used the earliest known transcriptions and recordings of many of the oldest folksongs known in England as his source, and worked from there. By 1966, at the time he was cutting his first two albums, Carthy was already an influence on Bob Dylan and Paul Simon, and by the end of the 1960s was de facto mentor to virtually every serious aspiring folk musician in England. At least three major English folk-rock bands, Fairport Convention, Steeleye Span, and the Albion Band, were formed either directly or indirectly with his help and influence. Surprisingly given his musical prowess, Carthy didn't initially set out to be a musician. Upon leaving school, he served as an assistant stage manager for different theatrical companies, and only gradually drifted into performing in the coffee houses spiring up around London during the late '50s and early '60s, as skiffle, with its heavy American influence, was supplanted by more specifically British material. He joined Redd Sullivan, Marion Gray, and Pete Maynard in a group called the Thameside...