Marry Waterson and Oliver Knight are brother and sister who have grown up immersed in traditional song. As part of the Waterson Family musical dynasty, the siblings have thrived on communal music making whilst developing highly original and distinctly English performance styles of their own, a method that owes much to the folk tradition, but isn’t beholden to it.Decisively moving out of the shadow of their mother - folk legend Lal Waterson – with the arrival of last year’s long-gestated ‘The Days That Shaped Me’ album- for which they were also nominated a BBC Folk Award - Marry & Oliver have readied a second album, ‘Hidden’ for release on One Little Indian, 24th September.
A single ‘Going Going Gone’ is released from the album on 17th September, its Andrew Sisters style harmonies courtesy of their cousin, Eliza Carthy and acapella trio Coope, Boyes and Simpson.
We took an early listen to the single ‘Going Going Gone’ and here’s what we thought:
A simply strummed guitar, faintly reminiscent of Mellow Yellow (Donovan), together with some exquisite harmonies, a bar-room piano ... and a blazing fire in the grate. What better way to spend an evening with friends?
Marry Waterson’s voice is bright, clear and concise. Merrily abundant, sherry shaded and cherry-blossom polished. And when those mahogany a cappella polyphonies come into view, to share in the moiling, your hands will feel more evenly balanced and your head starts to feel a great deal clearer.
The stippled, tinkling notes of the piano seem naked - as if suddenly exposed and dancing in the gaslight. And you will gently sway to the warm chorus as it tapers delicately out of sight, until it’s gone, gone gone.
Such faded charm!
– © Neil_Mach August 2012 –
Link: http://www.facebook.com/WatersonKnight
Marry and Oliver play a one-off show at:
The Slaughtered Lamb Great Sutton St.
Clerkenwell, London,
EC1V 0DX
Mon 17th Sep
http://www.theslaughteredlambpub.com
