The Gift Band featuring Norma Waterson, Eliza Carthy, Martin Carthy, Phil Alexander and Aidan Curran "It's hard to stick to just one kind of music," explained Norma Waterson, as she switched from a soulful gospel song to a grand, brooding ballad by Richard Thompson about the 1940s heart-throb Josef Locke, linking the two with a lengthy story about the songs she heard in her childhood. Now in her early 70s, the lady who heads the most extraordinary folk music dynasty in England was still in magnificent voice. Brought up in Hull by her part-Gypsy grandmother, she began singing with her younger sister and brother, and with them went on to form the traditional group, the Watersons. Then came Waterson: Carthy, in which she was joined by her celebrated husband and daughter, Martin and Eliza Carthy. Earlier this year she and Eliza recorded the album Gift. Now, mother and daughter were on stage together, mixing songs from Gift with material from Norma's solo albums. With Martin Carthy hidden behind them, playing guitar and banjo in the backing band, they began with the traditional The Chaps of Cockaigny, Eliza providing fiddle backing. They then branched out, from the tragic ballad Boston Burglar, a favourite of Norma's grandmother, to the novelty song Ukulele Lady, treated with rousing harmonies and jazz backing, and the slow and emotional Dreaming, which Loudon Wainwright wrote for Norma. The finest songs were left to the end. Norma's gloriously tuneful weepie Bunch of Thyme, Eliza's charming Prairie Lullaby and the finale, Over the Rainbow, were reminders that this duo can transform even the most well-worn, sentimental songs with their no-nonsense, soulful singing.
