Martin & Eliza Carthy
Friday May 9th, 2025
doors 7:30pm show 8pm
These shows are a BIG deal. Martin and Eliza are both longtime friends, but that aside, contacting friends who rarely tour the USA and live 4000 miles from St.Louis (in England) and asking them to play Focal Point's 50th anniversary is quite the ask, but to our absolute delight and amazement, they enthusiastically agreed! It's unlikely that a chance like this will come again, so we implore you to not miss the once in a lifetime opportunity to see these two together right here in the middle of the midwest!
*Note: To show our appreciation for our loyal patrons who have given their support over the last 50 years, we'll be doing an in-person only presale until March 1st where will-call tickets can be purchased during any of our weekend concerts between 730pm-1030pm for a discounted price of just $30. After March 1st, advance tickets will rise to $40 online.
Martin Carthy is a legendary ballad singer and guitarist who has influenced a 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.
For more than 50 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. Whether in the folk clubs (which he continues to champion), on the concert stage or making TV appearances there are few roles that Martin Carthy hasn’t played.
He’s 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.
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 a decades long career, 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-crossing performances.
Martin and Eliza Carthy don’t simply perform folk songs, they cherish them – seeking them out in archives, learning them from elders and bringing them back to life on stages around the world. When they do, it’s clear there’s a profound empathy with the lives they sing about. They pass that feeling on to every audience they meet, and we are all the richer for that experience.
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