Baker's Dozen

Artists discuss the 13 records that shaped their lives

9. Lal & Mike WatersonBright Phoebus

I love the Waterson Family so much but for me it’s really all about Lal Waterson’s singing. She had such a unique voice and the lyrics are really odd with very powerful imagery, bleak and surreal at the same time. I can identify with those northern vowel sounds as well. I’m not particularly proud nor hung up about where I come from, these things are pretty inconsequential, but I do like the sound of the northern vowel just as an aesthetic preference and I like hearing it in the vocals of The Watersons. I can listen to the a cappella stuff they do all day as well, but this record is much more expansive than a standard folk album. It’s not exactly cosmic music, it is still a folk album I suppose but those songs are all brilliant.

Selected in other Baker’s Dozens: Marry Waterson
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