Martin Dominic Forbes Carthy MBE (born 21 May 1941) is an English singer and guitarist who has remained one of the most influential figures in English folk music, inspiring contemporaries such as Bob Dylan and Paul Simon, as well as later artists such as Richard Thompson, since he emerged as a young musician in the early days of the folk revival in the UK during the 1960s and 1970s.

His mother was an active socialist and his father, from a family of Thames lightermen, went to grammar school and became a trade unionist and a councillor for Stepney at the age of 21.

He has cited his first major folk music influences as Big Bill Broonzy[3][4] and the syncopated guitar style of Elizabeth Cotten.

[6] He became a resident at The Troubadour folk club in Earls Court in the early 1960s after his friend Robin Hall persuaded him to visit and listen to the piper Seamus Ennis.

[7][8] In the early 1960s, Carthy visited Ewan MacColl's Ballads & Blues club to watch a friend, the singer Roy Guest.

Carthy has since described how Larner's performance of "Lofty Tall Ship" altered his perception of how a traditional folk song could be sung, and how it was a key moment in his own development as an artist.

The 1965 eponymous debut The Three City Four featured Carthy singing lead vocals on two tracks – Sydney Carter's "Telephone Song" and Rosselson's own "History Lesson".