Eliza Carthy

Waterson:Carthy, Anglicana and after

Eliza Amy Forbes Carthy was born on August 23, 1975 in Scarborough. She plays fiddle, viola, melodeon, piano, guitar, tenor guitar and ukulele. At 13 she formed the Waterdaughters with her mother Norma Waterson, aunt Lal Waterson and cousin Marry Waterson, and joined the Goathland Plough Stots as fiddler; she attended Fyling Hall School and left at 17 to tour professionally. In 1993 and 1995 she made albums with Nancy Kerr, and in 1994 joined Waterson:Carthy, the family folk group with Norma Waterson (who died on January 30, 2022, aged 82), Martin Carthy and, on melodeon, Saul Rose and Tim Van Eyken. They won best group and best traditional track ("Raggle Taggle Gypsy") at the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards in 2000.

Her solo records include Heat Light & Sound (1996), Red Rice (1998), a Mercury Prize nominee, Angels & Cigarettes (2000) and Anglicana, released on October 27, 2002 on Topic after her time at Warner. In 1998 she guested on Billy Bragg and Wilco's Mermaid Avenue. Anglicana was shortlisted for the 2003 Mercury Prize, losing to Dizzee Rascal's Boy in da Corner, and at the 2003 BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards she won folk singer of the year, best album and best traditional track for "Worcester City". Later records include Rough Music (2007), Dreams of Breathing Underwater (June 23, 2008), Neptune (2011), Wayward Daughter (2013), Big Machine (2017), Restitute (2019), Queen of the Whirl (2022) and No Wasted Joy (2024). She was a member of The Imagined Village and received an MBE in 2014 for services to folk music. Sophie Parkes wrote an official biography, Wayward Daughter, in 2012.