Cuckoo Storm is the first collaboration between
Marry Waterson and
Adrian Crowley, two distinctive singer/songwriters whose combined gifts create a compelling and earthy delight. The daughter of British folk legend
Lal Waterson,
Marry has nurtured her family's dynasty with a series of engaging musical partnerships. She first paired with her brother
Oliver Knight on 2011's
The Days That Shaped Me and has since made duo albums with fellow Brit
David A. Jaycock and Australia's
Emily Barker. Her 2019 set with
Barker,
A Window to Other Ways, so inspired the Irishman
Crowley that he reached out and suggested they collaborate. Not unlike
James Yorkston, his former
Fence Collective labelmate,
Crowley is something of a poetic weatherman, addressing listeners in a reassuring baritone that sits like a rusty anchor amid the stormy seas of his own making. Together he and
Waterson create folk-rooted music that is patient, intimate, and spacious. Co-produced with
Portishead bassist
Jim Barr,
Cuckoo Storm begins with the cautiously upbeat "Undear Sphere," a whimsical choice to introduce the album's primary cast and tonal palette. Light and jazzy, it soon disintegrates into "The Leviathan," a cinematic
Waterson vocal showcase of a much darker ilk.
Crowley takes his turn up front on the quietly rambling "Watching the Starlings," though the bulk of the set features both artists singing in tandem. Musically, they scale from the radiant chamber pop of "Lovers in the Waves" all the way down to the entirely a cappella "One Foot of Silver, One Foot of Gold," a phrase originally written by
Waterson's mother that she later spun out into her own song. Although it's their first time working together,
Waterson and
Crowley are two of a kind, building tension, maintaining, and releasing it with a natural rugged grace. ~ Timothy Monger
