Early Days is a compilation album of recordings by The Watersons

The Watersons

The Watersons were an English folk group from Hull, Yorkshire. They performed mainly traditional songs with little or no accompaniment. Their distinctive sound came from their closely woven harmonies.-Career:...

, released in 1994.

These recordings come from New Voices (an anthology) (1965), The Watersons (1966) and A Yorkshire Garland (1966). There is a guitar on tracks 8, 10 and 11. Although it seems totally unremarkable now, at the time that these recordings were made, The Watersons looked radical. Their appearance on stage was totally blue-collar and without any kind of showmanship. "Rap Her to Bank" is a previously unreleased track recorded in 1966.

Track listing

1. Boston Harbour (Trad)
2. Greenland Whale Fisheries
   Greenland Whale Fisheries
   "Greenland Whale Fisheries" is a traditional sea song. In most of the versions collected from oral sources, the song opens up giving a date for the events that it describes . However, the song is actually older than this and a form of it was published as a ballad before 1725.The song tells of a...
   
    (Trad)
3. Three Score and Ten (Trad)
4. The Broom of Cowdenknowes (Trad)
5. King Arthur's Servants
   Three Jolly Rogues
   - Synopsis :A miller, a weaver and a tailor lived in King Arthur's time . They were thrown out because they could not sing. All three were thieves...
   
    (Trad)
6. Rap Her to Bank (Trad)
7. Dido, Bendigo (Trad)
8. The North Country Maid (Trad)
9. Brave Woolfe (Trad)
10. The Jolly Waggoners
    The Jolly Waggoner
    The Jolly Waggoner is an English folk-song.-Synopsis:A waggoner looks back on his life. His parents had disapproved of his choice of profession, but has no regrets. He can be cold and wet, but he simply stops at the next inn and sits with the landlord, drinking. In the summer he hears the birds...
    
     (Trad)
11. I Am a Rover (Trad)
12. Fathom the Bowl
    Fathom the Bowl
    "Fathom the Bowl" is an English Drinking song, probably dating from the nineteenth century.-Synopsis:With a "Come all ye" opening, the singer invites heroes to join him in praise of punch. There is a catalogue of the ingredients that come from various countries. One verse laments the fact that the...
    
     (Trad)
13. The Thirty-Foot Trailer (Ewan MacColl)
14. The Holmfrith Anthem (Trad)
15. Twanky-Dillo (Trad)
16. The White Hare of Howden (Trad)
17. All For Me Grog (Trad)
18. The Poacher's Fate (Trad)
19. The Tour of the Dales (Trad)
20. Willy Went to Westerdale (Trad)
21. L'Anson's Racehorse (Trad)
22. The Ploughboy (Trad)
23. The White Cockade (Trad)
24. Ye Noble Spectators (Trad)
25. Stow Brow (Trad)
26. The Wanton Wife of Canongate (Trad)
27. The Whitby Lad (Trad)

Personnel

• Norma Waterson
  Norma Waterson
  Norma Christine Waterson is an English musician, best known as one of the original members of The Watersons, a premier English traditional group. Other members of the group included her brother Mike Waterson and sister Lal Waterson, and in later incarnations of the group her husband Martin...
  
   - vocals
• Mike Waterson
  Mike Waterson
  Michael Waterson was an English writer, songwriter and folk singer.Waterson was born in Hull, East Riding of Yorkshire, England. He is best known as a member of The Watersons, with his sisters Lal Waterson and Norma Waterson and his brother-in-law Martin Carthy...
  
   - vocals
• Elaine Waterson
  Lal Waterson
  Lal Waterson was an English folksinger and songwriter. She sang with, among others, The Watersons, The Waterdaughters and Blue Murder. She was born in Hull, East Riding of Yorkshire and died suddenly in Robin Hood's Bay, of cancer diagnosed only ten days before...
  
  - vocals
• John Harrison - vocals