In the wake of the recent, superb box set, it's hard to imagine a single disc being definitive of one of Britain's great folk singing groups. At best, you can touch on their different facets and legacy. But Definitive Collection actually does a splendid job. There are the hymns, the traditional songs, and some of the permutations (Lal and Norma, Mike, even the late Peter Bellamy), as well as tracks by Waterson: Carthy and Blue Murder, who carry on the flame of the original Watersons in many ways (especially Blue Murder, which is essentially Waterson:Carthy plus Barry Coope, Jim Boyes and Lester Simpson). The tracks are from their "Topic" albums (which means, because of licensing, nothing from the original, wonderful Bright Phoebus release is here), but all of those that are here are wonderful, and sung with such naturalness that they epitomize what folk singing should be about. There's no sense of premeditation about their performances. This is simply who they are, and their way of expressing themselves. It's not Mighty River of Song, which really is definitive, but as an introduction to the Watersons, and an overview of their massive achievements in folk music, this works excellently.
While the last decades of the twentieth century saw a revival of the genre, the twenty-first century has brought not only continued relevance, but a new appreciation for English folk music. An ever-growing audience embraces the brilliant, fresh crop of musicians, who enrich the tradition with novel takes on old songs and new tunes. This album features the super talented singer-songwriter Eliza Carthy, who duets with her mom, the legendary Norma Waterson, both Mercury Award nominees. Multi-instrumentalist Pete Coe has been one of the most consistently excellent traditional musicians and songwriters to remain inspired since the 1970s. Ian King came from outside the folk scene with radical reworkings of traditional English songs made with the help of reggae producer Adrian Sherwood and Little Axe guitarist Skip McDonald. Glastonbury-born Emily Portman quickly distinguished herself in the trio Devil’s Interval before flattening everybody with her extraordinary songs dealing with the weird and dark side of folklore.
Specially selected 15 track compilation / Introduction note from Eliza Carthy / Features Jon Boden, John Spiers, Ben Ivitsky, Lucy Farrell and Sam Sweeney / Track by track information. Describing herself simply as a ‘modern English musician’ Eliza Carthy, has been touring on and off since the age of fourteen and first appeared on record in 1990 as a member of The Mrs Ackroyd Band alongside such notables as Les Barker, June Tabor and her father Martin Carthy. After two collaborative recordings with Nancy Kerr, she released her first solo album Heat, Light & Sound, for Topic Records in 1996, a selection of traditional songs, two of which open this new selection of her work which is drawn entirely from her solo recordings for the label and closing with a track from 2017’s Big Machine album.
Notwithstanding one or two isolated exceptions, it wasn’t until the mid-Sixties that independent female voices really began to be heard within the music industry. The feminist movement naturally coincided with the first signs of genuine musical emancipation. In North America, Joan Baez and Buffy Sainte-Marie emerged through the folk clubs, coffee-houses and college campuses to inspire a generation of wannabe female singers and musicians with their strong, independent mentality and social compassion, while the British scene’s combination of folk song revival and the Beatles-led pop explosion saw record company deals for a new generation of pop-folkies including Marianne Faithfull, Dana Gillespie and Vashti Bunyan.