Green Note, London
Marry Waterson and her brother Oliver Knight belong to the best-known folk dynasty in Britain. Their mother was Lal Waterson, the singer and experimental songwriter who died in 1998, their aunt and uncle are Norma Waterson and Martin Carthy, and their cousin is Eliza Carthy. It's a background that raises enormous expectations, which is perhaps why they have taken so long to work together. But they have at last recorded an album, to be released later this month, and this low-key folk-club debut provided an intriguing introduction.
The stagecraft may have been basic, but they have written some remarkable songs. Three years ago, Marry sang at a Waterson family gathering at the Albert Hall in London, and startled the audience with her powerful treatment of Lal Waterson's song Fine Horseman, sounding (and looking) remarkably like her mother. She started this show with same song, backed by her brother on acoustic guitar and Reuben Taylor on accordion, and later piano.
Then she moved on to her own material, written with help from Knight, and showed that she could match her mother for intriguing, sometimes highly personal lyrics, and impressively strong melodies. She demonstrated her sad-edged, no-nonsense vocal style on Curse the Day, before moving on to the gently swinging Windy Day, and the complex, mournful and drifting The Gap. She included only one traditional song, an unaccompanied treatment of The Welcome Sailor, a song that Lal and Norma Waterson recorded together in the 70s "which I learned round the kitchen table", and ended with Some Old Salty, her mother's rousing shanty about dancing with sailors in Hull. She looked less confident than she sounded, but this was an impressive debut. Lal would have been proud.
Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2011/mar/13/marry-waterson-oliver-knight-review
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