CD Review - Martin Carthy at Ruskin Mill (From Stroud News and Journal)

CD Review - Martin Carthy at Ruskin Mill

Martin Carthy at Ruskin Mill Musical Traditions £10 from Kane's and Trading Post

THERE'S a rare treat awaiting any fan of folk music in Stroud record shops at the moment; a CD of perhaps the greatest living English folk singer in intimate concert at Ruskin Mill.

The CD is also raising money for Nailsworth man Richard Valentine, one-time member of The Old Swan Band and a director of the Nailsworth Festival, who is undergoing treatment for cancer. Carthy and his record company have been good enough to let all profit from the CD go to helping him.

This is a superb tribute. Martin Carthy is in fine voice and the acoustics of the performance area and the warmth of the show and the audience are captured beautifully. One could almost be there listening; this is a rare thing, a true record of a live gig.

From The Royal Lament to gypsy song Christ Made a Trance and on to closing track The Harry Lime Theme (from The Third Man), this is one double CD that anyone with even a passing interest in folk music should own.

Adam Horovitz