Norma Waterson

Norma Waterson

Norma Waterson is an English folk singer from Kingston upon Hull. Born Norma Christine Waterson in 1939, she dies in 2022 and is one of the original members of The Watersons, an English traditional music group. The group includes her brother Mike Waterson, her sister Lal Waterson, and, in a later line-up, her husband Martin Carthy.

Career

Waterson has a long career in folk music as a singer and collaborator. She is a member of Waterson:Carthy with Martin Carthy and Eliza Carthy, and also performs with the supergroup Blue Murder. She appears on a range of collective recordings, including Peter Bellamy’s The Transports.

Solo recordings

Her solo debut album, Norma Waterson, is produced by John Chelew and released by Hannibal Records in 1996. It is nominated for the Mercury Music Prize and features collaborations with her daughter Eliza Carthy, Martin Carthy, other members of The Watersons, Danny Thompson, Richard Thompson and Roger Swallow. Her second album, Bright Shiny Morning, is released in 2001. Her final album, Anchor, is released in 2018 and is the second recording she makes with Eliza Carthy. On that album, she sings lead on a version of Tom Waits’s “Strange Weather” and on Nick Lowe’s “The Beast in Me”.

Recognition

In 2016, Waterson receives the Lifetime Achievement Award at the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards. She remains active as a singer into her later years and is remembered as a key figure in English folk music.