the Royal Lament (Martin Carthy)

My rendition of the Royal Lament, a tune arranged by Martin Carthy that ended up on his Waiting for Angels album. It commemorates the beheading of Charles 1st.

I was floored the first time I heard him play this and tried hard to get it as close as I could for a couple of years after, helped immensely by Live at Ruskin Mill (Carthy often plays wonderful instrumentals live but doesnt record them for years, if at all). I think most of the fingerings are correct there are many ways to play this but for tone Carthy would usually prefer the simplest fingering and will also generally prefer a thicker string fretted higher over a lighter string fretted lower he likes the dusty end of the neck! Impossible to capture the feel of the guitarist described by Michael Hedges as having the best sense of timing in the world, but I tried my best.

Tuning, as ever for Carthy, is CGCDGA.

Guages are 59, 49, 39, 27, 18, 17.

Guitar is a Ralph Bown OM in spruce/brazillian rosewood that was owned by Clive Carroll. Im using a metal thumb pick for true Carthy clonism!

Audio isnt great since its the mic on the video camera and nothing else.

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Royal
• Lament;
• Martin
• Carthy;
• CGCDGA;
• Ralph
• Bown;
• Clive
• Carroll

[MrPozzoz]

Thank you for this video , I was floored the first time I heard him play this , it was a concert of his in 2001 .