The Watersons by The Watersons, released on Topic in 1966.

Sleeve Notes

The Watersons sing songs from all over the country but pay special attention to those collected in their native East Yorkshire. They live in Hull, the great seaport beside the Humber that also produced one of our greatest poets, Andrew Marvell; and in Hull they have for some years run their famous club, Folk Union One.

https://mainlynorfolk.info/watersons/records/thewatersons.html

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=66qUOmGbvIQ

#TheWatersons #NormaWaterson #MikeWaterson #LalWaterson #FolkMusic #Hull #Music #TraditionalSongs #TopicRecords

The next album SpaceAce submitted to this project is a collection of holiday tunes, so we’re going to save that for a later SpaceAce Sunday and skip to the next, number 482 in The List.

This is a really lovely and eclectic collection of folk songs from the Waterson siblings. SpaceAce must’ve really dug what this family was doing, as he also submitted the first two albums by The Watersons, an earlier band that included both Lal and Mike along with their other sibling Norma, and cousin John Harrison. The Watersons had broken up in 1968 but would reform the same year Bright Phoebus was released.

I think SpaceAce would’ve had a lot to say about this one. As per the Wikipedia page, it had some really mixed reviews when it was released, presumably because it was a departure from the family’s typical work of singing traditional songs, featuring instead original songs, some of which were more poppy, some rather dark. To put in context of contemporaries, Ewan MacColl (who we met last SpaceAce Sunday) hated it, but Anne Briggs (who we’ll meet next SpaceAce Sunday) loved it. Since then, it seems to have become a bit of a holy grail, as it wasn’t repressed on vinyl until 2017, and then the re-release was pulled due to copyright issues. I wonder if SpaceAce had one of the original 1000 copies…

In memory of our dearly missed friend, let’s raise a glass and take a listen together.

• Youtube: Lal & Mike Waterson – Bright Phoebus
• Discogs: Lal & Mike Waterson – Bright Phoebus

https://1001otheralbums.com/2024/08/18/spaceace-sunday-lal-mike-waterson-bright-phoebus-1972-uk/

#1001OtherAlbums #1970s #BritishFolk #folk #folkRock #LalWaterson #MikeWaterson #SpaceAceSunday #TheWatersons