Martin and Eliza Carthy 10/9/2017

Preceded by a tour around Colston Hall in the afternoon, this gig was in The Lantern (which was the original Colston Hall) - increasingly preferred by me to the main hall even though seating is not numbered. They started promptly at 8pm and there was an easy and warm ambience from this father and daughter duo all through the two hours or so of music that followed. I love Eliza's fiddle playing which is authoritative and rhythmic but also packs emotional content. Martin's acoustic guitar playing was also excellent - it had a deliberation about it but subtleties were always evident. He uses a different tuning to most guitarists and I also enjoyed his constant tic-like tuning of the guitar between songs. The catalogue of songs was a trawl through musical and (largely) British history. Apart from a few songs which were done solo, they played together with one or the other taking vocal lead. A couple of the solo songs were exceptional - I was particularly taken with 'Nelly was a lady' by Eliza which is a Stephen Foster song. Other highlights for me were 'Awake, awake' a version of a song I know better as 'Silver Dagger''Bonny Moorhen' a song about the hard people who live in Weardale, 'Nancy from London' and a ballad about a boxing match in the mid 19C. An excellent gig in a great atmosphere - I'd better watch out or I'll become a folkie.