Fishes And Fine Yellow Sand

Martin Carthy and Norma Waterson are two giants of English folk music, with performing and recording careers stretching back to the early 60s; in more recent years, their daughter Eliza Carthy has become one of the scene’s brightest young stars, picking up three BBC Radio 2 awards and a Mercury Music Prize nomination for her solo work as a singer and fiddler. Together with honorary family member, melodeon player Tim Van Eyken, they make up the group Waterson:Carthy. Their fifth album, the entertaining liner notes tell us, is devoted to songs about bad people, whose frequent appearance in the tradition is at least partly due to the fact that 18th century ballad writers used to hawk songs about notorious criminals under the very gallows on which said individuals were in the process of being executed. As always, the instrumental quality is impeccable and the singing glorious, particularly when the four voices join in rich harmony.