Steve Knightley pays tribute to Bob Dylan and Martin Carthy with new album

It comes on the back of his first solo studio album in 17 years, The Winter Yards, and coincides with new album Positively Folk Street: Dylan, Carthy & Me (March 4) – both part of his new solo journey since folk roots legends Show of Hands – Steve plus Phil Beer – announced their “indefinite break” last year.

It’s all also part of a 30-year journey that perhaps would never have unfolded had it not been for his discovery of two of the most iconic figures in folk history – the ground-breaking Bob Dylan and the influential Martin Carthy, one of the leading figures in the English traditional folk revival. The result is Positively Folk Street, a new 12-track album which is Steve’s personal tribute featuring six songs from Dylan and six traditional songs arranged by Carthy.

Their paths famously crossed when Carthy helped Dylan navigate the London folk scene in the 1960s. They influenced each other and became friends. Dylan learned traditional songs from Carthy, including Scarborough Fair, which inspired him to write Girl from the North Country, a track on 1963’s classic album The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan. Years on, Dylan’s light is in the ascendency once more with the hit film A Complete Unknown.

After seeing the film, Steve says he couldn’t resist revisiting Girl from the North Country, which is the opening track on Positively Folk Street.

“When I first picked up an acoustic guitar in my mid-teens, my repertoire was very limited—and then I discovered The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan. That album was a revelation. At the time, I had no idea Dylan had drawn so deeply from our own folk traditions to shape many of his songs.

“Later that same summer, I found myself at Sidmouth Folk Festival, where I saw Martin Carthy perform live for the first time. Another moment of discovery!

“Carthy is name-checked on the back cover of The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan as a source of some of Dylan’s melodies, and suddenly his music which I had assumed was purely American revealed its deep British roots. These songs—woven from a tradition stretching across the Atlantic—felt both familiar and transformative. It was an inspiring time, a period when Dylan’s poetic sensibility collided with the narrative power of folk music.

“This album is a tribute to those formative influences. Across these 12 songs, I revisit the worlds of Bob Dylan and Martin Carthy—two artists who shaped my musical journey and set me on a path I’m still walking.”

Positively Folk Street picks some of the richest songs from the Dylan canon and pairs them with some of the best-loved English folk songs.