Martin Carthy + Eliza Carthy

Fri 3 Apr 2026 7:30pm

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Fri 3 Apr 2026 7:30pm

£28

Performers

Martin Carthy

Eliza Carthy

Venue

Map of Wiltshire Music Centre's Location

Wiltshire Music Centre
Wiltshire Music Centre Ashley Road Bradford-on-Avon UK

01225 860 100

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Accessibility

This performance contains easily accessible seats. If you are using a wheelchair or require front-row seats, please contact the Box Office on 01225 860 100 to book your seats.

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Mercury Prize nominee 2025 & BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards Lifetime Achievement Award winner performs new album alongside his daughter

Legendary ballad singer and guitarist, Martin Carthy has influenced generations of artists, including Bob Dylan and Paul Simon. So it’s no surprise that he was shortlisted for a 2025 Mercury Music Prize – one of the most prestigious honours in the industry – for Transform Me Then Into A Fish, a collection of songs also voted one of Songlines’ five Best Albums of 2025.

This album both marked his 84th birthday in May 2025, and offers a full circle moment in his music journey as he revisits material from his very first (eponymous) solo record released in 1965. In Spring 2026 he returns to touring not only with daughter Eliza Carthy, but with the new album, plus an eclectic range of songs and tunes from his vast repertoire, as well as drawing from the traditional canon too.

Eliza has also been in the studio, upon the occasion of her fiftieth birthday, recording entirely new material for her new project Frenemies, which will be released in 2026. This represents the next stage in Eliza’s original songwriting and will feature many musicians from outside the folk scene with whom Eliza has been lucky enough to work.

This powerhouse pair are still making music together, as they always have. Together, they perform an eclectic range of songs and tunes from their vast family repertoire, drawing from the traditional canon as well as selections from a more contemporary songbook. In this duo format, each artist showcases their unique individual musical talents, as well as highlighting their symbiotic bond, with instinctive and sensitive arrangements and accompaniment for each other.

More about Martin Carthy

For almost 60 years, Martin Carthy has been one of folk music’s greatest innovators, one of its best loved, most enthusiastic and, at times, most quietly controversial of figures. His skill, stage presence and natural charm have won him many admirers, not only from within the folk scene, but also far beyond it.

Trailblazing musical partnerships with, amongst others, Steeleye Span, Dave Swarbrick and his award-winning wife (Norma Waterson) and daughter Eliza Carthy have resulted in more than 40 albums, as well as eleven solo albums. Whether in the folk clubs, on the concert stage or making TV appearances, there are few roles that Martin Carthy hasn’t played. A ballad singer, a ground-breaking acoustic and electric-guitarist and an authoritative interpreter of newly composed material. He always prefers to follow an insatiable musical curiosity rather than cash in on his unrivalled position.

Perhaps, most significant of all, are his settings of traditional songs with guitar, which have influenced a generation of artists, including Bob Dylan and Paul Simon, on both sides of the Atlantic.

More about Eliza Carthy

Eliza Carthy is undoubtedly one of the most impressive and engaging performers of her generation. Twice nominated for the Mercury Prize and winner of innumerable other accolades over her career to date, Eliza has performed and recorded with a diverse array of artists including, Paul Weller, Rufus and Martha Wainwright, Patrick Wolf and Bob Neuwirth. More than most, Eliza Carthy has revitalised folk music and captured the most hardened of dissenters with intelligent, charismatic and boundary-bending performances.

Eliza grew up immersed in the world of traditional music. She still divides her time between touring and recording as well as engaging in numerous pioneering solo and band projects, most recently, The Restitution.