FOLK icon Martin Carthy will be performing live in South Cumbria this week.

The former Steeleye Span man headlines at the Brewery Arts Centre, in Kendal, on Thursday night.

For more than 50 years, Carthy has been one of folk music's greatest innovators, and one of its best loved figures.

His skill, stage presence and natural charm have won him many admirers, not only from within the folk scene, but also far beyond it.

Trailblazing musical partnerships with, amongst others, Steeleye Span, Dave Swarbrick and his folk award-winning wife Norma Waterson, as well as his daughter, Eliza Carthy, have resulted in more than 40 albums. Of those, he has recorded 10 solo efforts, with the most recent coming in 2004.

He has sung with The Watersons since 1972, was twice a member of folk rock group Steeleye Span, was a member of the Albion Country Band 1973 line-up, and was part of the innovative Brass Monkey ensemble.

Whether in the folk clubs, which he continues to champion, on the concert stage or making TV appearances - he was the subject of the acclaimed `Originals’ music documentary strand on BBC 2 - there are few roles that Martin Carthy hasn’t played.

Few performers have been so influential and attracted so many accolades - he was hailed as "arguably the greatest English folk song performer, writer, collector and editor of them all" by Q Magazine, and was awarded an MBE for services to English music in 1998.

The BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards also bestowed him with a Lifetime Achievement Award in 2004.

Perhaps, most significant of all, are his settings of traditional songs with guitar, which have influenced a generation of artists, including Bob Dylan and Paul Simon, on both sides of the Atlantic.

Still touring regularly, he has a busy schedule for the rest of 2018 - including a return to Cumbria to play at the Sticklebarn, in Langdale, in December.

The show at the Brewery Arts Centre on Thursday starts at 7.30pm, and tickets are available from the venue's box office.