The Eliza Carthy crusade

As the daughter of Brit folk legends Martin Carthy and Norma Waterson, it was no surprise that fiddle-playing Eliza Carthy should follow her parents into the family business. What nobody anticipated was the impact she'd make regenerating the image of the music. With her studded nose, changing hair colour and natural talent, Eliza led the successful 1990s English folk crusades. She gave the press something to write about, won the first of two Mercury prize nominations for Red Rice in 1998, persuaded a new generation to take folk songs seriously and reinvigorated the whole genre.