Pioneering traditional folk powerhouse, Eliza Carthy, first assembled the Wayward Band in 2013 in order to explore and celebrate her long and varied career in folk music; ‘the last truly underground music scene’. To do this Eliza put together a team of hugely talented people from across the UK, and set out on the road to promote her ‘Best Of’ compilation, ‘Wayward Daughter’ (Topic Records), coinciding with a biography of the same name. Since then the band has become a festival favourite, and Eliza has been awarded the MBE for services to English folk music. Eliza and the Wayward Band loved playing together so much it seemed natural, inevitable and characteristically ambitious, that this 12-piece would set about recording an album. Early in 2016 they did just that. ‘Big Machine’ is the result and the renowned Real World and Rockfield Studios are where it all happened. ‘Big Machine’ will be released on 28th October 2016
Eliza Carthy & The Wayward Band can’t contain their infectious joy and loving irreverence onstage in a live show, already the stuff of legend. Their appearances this year include key summer festivals – Cambridge, FolkEast, Tonder (Denmark), Purbeck and Shrewsbury before embarking on a 13 date November 2016 UK tour, including a suitably explosive 5th November gig at London’s Assembly Hall.
The material represents a healthy slice of everything good that is happening in traditional music now, across a sparkling spectrum of sound. ‘Big Machine’ features three contemporary songs; Eliza’s own “You Know Me” about the migrant crisis and notions of hospitality (featuring MC Dizraeli), a powerful cover of Ewan Maccoll’s Radio Ballad “The Fitter’s Song” (at the behest of Peggy Seeger – and the song which inspired the album title) and an affectionate reworking of “Hug You Like a Mountain” (Rory MacLeod), re-imagined here as a duet with Teddy Thompson.
There are also several examples of the Broadside ballad collections housed in Chetham’s Library in Manchester given a new twist with music by Eliza and the band. This follows an acclaimed programme Eliza presented for Radio 4 about the Manchester Ballads last year, covering everything from songs about and caused by domestic abuse (“Devil in the Woman”, “Fade and Fall (Love Not)”), to love of the seafaring life (“The Sea”). Added to that a couple of searing instrumentals, a song about dying from custard poisoning and a heartbreaking traditional ballad “I Wish that the Wars were all Over” (performed live with the band onstage in Real World Studios’ Studio One and featuring Irish superstar Damien Dempsey), and you begin to get the picture. This is a Big Machine, firing on all cylinders. ‘Big Machine’ is one of Eliza Carthy’s most adventurous and accomplished works to date – which given Eliza’s track record is really saying something. Probably the most passionate and groundbreaking English traditional singer of her generation, ‘Big Machine’ is an album you really won’t want to miss.
Eliza Carthy and The Wayward Band Tour Dates
Big Machine Summer Festivals + November Tour
Sunday 31 July – Cambridge Folk Festival, Cambridge
Friday 19 Aug – Folk East, Glemham Hall, Suffolk
Saturday 27 Aug – Tonder, Denmark
Sunday 28 Aug – Purbeck Folk Festival, Purbeck Valley Farm
Monday 29 Aug – Shrewsbury Folk Festival West Midlands Showground, Shrewsbury
Sunday 4th Sep – Hull Freedom Festival, Main Stage
Thursday 03 Nov – The Apex, Bury st Edmunds
Friday 04 Nov – St Mary in the Castle, Hastings
Saturday 05 Nov – Islington Assembly Hall, London
Sunday 06 Nov – Warwick Arts Centre, Coventry
Friday 11 Nov – Salisbury City Hall, Salisbury
Saturday 12 Nov – RNCM, Manchester
Sunday 13 Nov – The Bath Halls, Scunthorpe
Thursday 17 Nov – Theatre Royal, Margate
Friday 18 Nov – Phil Music Room, Liverpool
Sunday 20 Nov – Pavilion, Whitby
Friday 25 Nov – Colston Hall, Bristol
Saturday 26 Nov – Anvil, Basingstoke
Sunday 27 Nov – Glee Club, Nottingham