Eliza Carthy

Born in Scarborough, North Yorkshire, Eliza Carthy situates herself within the English folk tradition while opening it to more fluid forms, between singing, violin, and a melodic approach deeply anchored in British traditional repertoires. Daughter of Martin Carthy and Norma Waterson, she grows up in a family environment closely tied to the English folk revival and begins to play very young, notably with The Waterdaughters and then alongside Nancy Kerr, before pursuing a solo career and in several groups such as Waterson:Carthy, Blue Murder or The Imagined Village. Emerging in the 1990s, Eliza Carthy develops a style that blends traditional ballads, dancing energy, contemporary arrangements and personal songwriting. Her discography includes Heat Light & Sound (1996), Red Rice (1998), Angels & Cigarettes (2000), Anglicana (2002), Rough Music (2007), Dreams of Breathing Underwater (2008), Neptune (2011), Wayward Daughter (2013), Big Machine with The Wayward Band (2017), Restitute (2019), Queen of the Whirl (2022) and No Wasted Joy (2024). Over the course of her career she has also collaborated with Billy Bragg and Wilco on Mermaid Avenue (1998), participated in collective projects related to traditional music, and moved between folk festivals, acoustic stages and more transversal contexts.