2025 Mercury Prize Shortlisted

Lifetime Achievement Award – BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards

Martin Carthy is a legendary ballad singer and guitarist who has influenced generations of artists, including Bob Dylan and Paul Simon, while Eliza has been twice-nominated for the Mercury Music Prize and a multiple-award winner at the BBC Radio Two Folk awards.

In recognition of his illustrious career Martin was recently shortlisted for the 2025 Mercury Price for his wonderful new solo record Transform Me Then Into A Fish. This album both marks 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. https://transformmethenintoafish.com/#

A sold out celebratory Life & Songs Of Martin Carthy concert in autumn 2025 saw folk music’s best loved figure being honoured by a stellar line-up of artists marking every era from his musical career, from Billy Bragg and Graham Coxson to Angeline Morrison. He also received video messages and accolades from Bob Dylan, Paul Simon, Robert Plant, Paul Weller, KT Tunstall, Jools Holland, Joe Boyd and more. Martin is one in a million, and it was glorious to see him feel the love and appreciation for him and his profound influence on so many musicians.

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.

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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.

`Arguably the greatest English folk song performer, writer, collector and editor of them all’ Q Magazine

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.

’Eliza Carthy is one of the figureheads of the English folk revival … compelling’ Evening Standard

‘A gloriously natural singer’ – Q magazine

‘Seriously impressive’ – Telegraph

‘…brave and anything but predictable’ **** 4 Stars The Guardian