Big Machine

2017 release. Pioneering English 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. Since then, the band has become a festival favorite, and Eliza has been awarded the MBE for services to folk music. Eliza and the Wayward Band loved playing together so much it seemed natural and inevitable, as well as 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, produced by Jim Sutherland, represents a healthy slice of everything good that is happening in traditional music now, across a sparkling spectrum of sound. The album 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. Big Machine is one of Eliza Carthy's most adventurous and accomplished works to date - and given that Eliza is the most passionate and groundbreaking English traditional singer of her generation, Big Machine is an album you really won't want to miss.