Brother and sister
Marry Waterson and
Oliver Knight are children of folksinger
Lal Waterson of
the Watersons, but despite that lineage had not pursued professional performing until this album, with
Marry Waterson working in graphic design and sculpture, and
Knight a gardener who eventually began to work in recording studios. As a team,
Knight provides musical accompaniment to
Waterson's improvised melodies. "I just sing whatever comes into my head and
Olly helps me structure it," she explains in the duo's press biography. The result on
The Days That Shaped Me is a series of art songs reminiscent of traditional folk songs in which
Waterson's alto is shadowed by
Knight's acoustic guitar, with occasional other instruments added. "The Loosened Arrow," for instance, has percussion and a fiddle, and "Windy Day" a piano and reed instrument.
Waterson is also joined by the occasional guest singer, such as
Kathryn Williams, providing harmony on "Father Us" and "Secret Smile," both of which she co-wrote, and James Yorkston duetting on his co-composition, "Yolk Yellow Legged."
The Days That Shaped Me makes few concessions to accessibility. It often isn't clear what
Waterson is singing about in her poetic lines ("Curse the Day," says the press biography, "tackles the thorny subject of PMT," i.e., PMS), and the music hardly has a singalong quality. But it also recalls the austere, oral tradition of which
the Watersons were a part. ~ William Ruhlmann