Martin Carthy, “Trees They Do Grow High,” Martin Carthy (1965)
My good friend gave me a disk for my birthday with 1.3 DAYS of music—a comprehensive course in the English folk scene that is his specialty. It is filled with Brass Monkey, Bandoggs Group, Albion Dance Band, The Etchingham Steam Band, Muckram Wakes, The Druids and venerables of the scene such as Shirley Collins, Ashley Hutchings, Steeleye Span, Fairport Convention and Martin Carthy. I have liked Carthy’s guitar playing since I first heard it— a distinctive complement to his voice, a percussive, melodic counterpoint.
As with all folk traditions, this one is found to be incestuous and self-reflexive, with band members leaping from project to project, band to band, label to label. Like a Nashville session musician with three sessions a day, these musicians bounced around. Unlike the Nashville cats, these musicians were not paid-for-hire. Rather, they were caretakers of a tradition. And while the idea of experimentalism may not seem readily apparent to the new listener, they were all trying to advance the tradition, one that was old but still very much alive and capable of renewal. Find the same song done by eight of these performers and bands (which is easy to do) and you will find extreme variations. Mainly Barfolk provides the musicians and recording dates for many of the best-known albums, and spending some time there will confirm the tightness of this tribe. With little of this music available on CD, Mainly Barfolk is one of only a few sources. If you want to hear a lot of it for yourself and make your own infinite playlist, it is best to go to Time Has Told Me.
The song here is heard in many guises, and is sometimes known as “Daily Growing” or “Young But Daily Growing.” An oral tradition for the most part, titles and lyrics are open to interpretation. And so, here is 3 minutes and 35 seconds out of roughly 90 hours of music. A single rain drop in a hurricane. Now, back to listening, no more time to write!
