Norma Waterson, a leading voice in British folk music, died January 30, 2022 at age 82. Waterson — who performed and recorded with her siblings Mike and Lal, her husband Martin Carthy, and their daughter Eliza Carthy — had recently been hospitalized with pneumonia.
Hailed as one of the defining voices of English traditional music “in a January 31 tweet by folk-rocker Billy Bragg and as the matriarch of the “royal family of British folk music” in The New York Times, Waterson was awarded the MBE (Member of the Order of the British Empire) in Queen Elizabeth’s 2003 New Year Honours for her contributions to folk music. She also received a Lifetime Achievement Award at the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards at London’s Royal Albert Hall in 2016.
As part of The Watersons with her younger brother and sister Mike and Lal, and their cousin John Harrison, she helped to usher in the British folk revival of the 1960s. The critically acclaimed family group, whose repertoire was largely comprised of traditional folk songs, was known for its close and stirring vocal harmonies, often sung a cappella with little or no accompaniment. Melody Maker named its debut album, Frost and Fire, Album of the Year. The group, which Waterson also managed, disbanded in 1968 and reformed a few years later, with renowned singer and guitarist Martin Carthy, a two-time winner of BBC Radio 2’s Folk Singer of the Year award, whom Waterson married in 1972, replacing Harrison. The Watersons continued recording through the 1980s. Mike Waterson’s daughter Rachel also was part of the group during the mid-late 1980s. In the mid-1990s, Waterson, Carthy, and their daughter Eliza (a singer and fiddler who was named after Waterson’s maternal grandmother) formed Waterson-Carthy, while Waterson also released several solo albums in the late 1990s-early 2000s. With songs by the likes of Elvis Costello, The Grateful Dead and Ben Harper, her 1996 self-titled, Mercury Prize-nominated debut album extended far beyond the British traditional folk stylings for which she was renowned, while her final album with Eliza, 2018’s Anchor, featured traditional ballads, along with songs by Nick Lowe, Tom Waits and Monty Python’s Eric Idle. Her two other solo recordings are more traditional.
Waterson was born in Hull, Yorkshire, England on August 15, 1939. She and her younger siblings, both of whom predeceased her, were raised by their maternal grandmother, Eliza Ward, following the deaths of their parents at a young age. Several of their uncles were musicians, and they may have been destined to follow in heir footsteps – first forming a skiffle band before turning to traditional folk. Waterson was also a radio DJ for a few years on the Caribbean island of Montserrat.
Although Waterson continued performing well into her 70s, illness left her unable to do so for years. She recovered from a four months–long coma in 2010 but had to learn how to walk and talk again.
The voice of the last of the singing Watersons has been stilled, but her recorded music lives on to be enjoyed for generations to come. As Eliza Carthy wrote in a Facebook post: “Our only hope is that she is with Lal and Mike and her mam and dad now, being held and welcomed and finally without pain.”
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