The Definitive Collection

Norma Waterson, described by Mojo magazine as "possibly the finest English singer alive today", is one of the most important best loved figures on the British folk scene. Aside from her wonderful, rich and distinctive voice, her particular skill is in her choice of songs and how she makes each relevant to a modern audience. Her career goes back to the early 1960s with the folk supergroup The Watersons who took the nascent folk revival by storm. She married Martin Carthy, and when The Watersons finally called it a day, formed Waterson:Carthy with Martin and their daughter Eliza Carthy. A late entrant to a solo career, her first Hannibal CD won her a prestigious Mercury Music Prize nomination. She also won the BBC Radio 2 Folk Award as 'Folk Singer Of The Year' and was given an MBE for services to Folk Music. "The Definitive Collection" has Norma in a number of settings, with tracks from her solo albums, as well as collaborations and group performances from The Watersonsd and Waterson:Carthy gathered from her Topic and Hannibal catalogues and including an unreleased live recording of "Ain't No Man Worth the Salt Of My Tears." The Mercury Music Prize nomination of Norma Waterson's first album for the Hannibal label brought her to the attention of a much wider audience and it is to that audience that this beautifully produced, designed and compiled budget album is aimed.