Folk guitarist Martin Carthy has happy memories of the recording sessions for Bright Phoebus – Mike and Lal Waterson’s only album of original songs.

Sadly the initial commercial reaction didn’t match the joy of making the record.

“There was a lot of magic in the air,” he says of the recording sessions.

“The album was way before its time – it was a long time before people actually took notice of it.

“We have received some wonderful reviews since. The NME referred to it as a lost classic.”

Now Lal’s daughter, Marry Waterson, has put together a touring tribute concert to the album, four decades on from its release.

The line-up features both Carthy and his wife Norma Waterson, who performed on the original album; Marry and her brother Olly Knight; Kami Thompson, daughter of the album’s original guitarist Richard; plus special guests Sheffield-based Mercury Music Prize double nominee Richard Hawley, and cult favourite John Smith.

They will be performing alongside a core band put together by the Barbican’s Kate St John, including Neil MacColl, the son of UK folk legend Ewan, on guitar.

The original album developed after folk siblings The Watersons initially split in 1968, with Norma moving to the Caribbean island of Montserrat to work as a disc jockey for three years.

Break from tradition The Hull-based trio had made their name performing traditional songs in folk clubs around the country in the early 1960s, characterised by their distinctive closely woven vocal harmonies and minimal accompaniment.

It was while on this hiatus that Lal, who died from cancer in 1998, and her brother Mike, who passed away in 2011, started to work on their own original material.

“Lal had always written songs, she was quite a serious songwriter,” recalls Carthy.

“I can’t imagine how many songs Mike forgot. He was a builder and would visit us in his lunch hour saying, ‘Listen to what I’ve written’.

“He would sing a bit of a song he was working on, and we would ask what had happened to the one he was working on the other day! Occasionally he would really start to work on something and when he did, the results were extraordinary.”

When Carthy heard the music Lal and Mike were working on together he was “absolutely knocked out”.

The impetus for the album came from Carthy’s bandmate in folk supergroup Steeleye Span, Ashley Hutchings, who set up the recording sessions for Bright Phoebus in time for Norma’s return from the Caribbean.

“The album became part of the three of them re-engaging,” says Carthy, who married Norma not long after the recording sessions. The short Bright Phoebus tour will see Norma make a rare return to the stage having contracted septicaemia at the end of 2010.

“They were orphans and had become a tight unit – tighter than you or I could ever imagine.”

Gathering Richard Thompson and Dave Mattacks from Fairport Convention; Hutchings, Carthy and Maddy Prior from Steeleye Span; and producer Bill Leader, who also ran the traditional music label Trailer, the sessions were, in Carthy’s words, “an extraordinary experience”.

“People arrived knowing something was going on and got roped into singing,” he says.

“My favourite story is a bloke who was delivering a parcel which needed signing – somebody signed it for him and handed him a set of words. He sang on a session but we forgot to get his name!”

That laidback atmosphere can be heard on the singalong songs The Rubber Band, which opens the album, and The Magical Man.

Elsewhere, Lal’s darker material such as Never The Same and Child Among The Weeds stay in the air long after they have been performed – clearly nodding back to the storytelling folk tradition but with a more modern twist, as underlined by the ambulance siren at the end of Winifer Odd.

Mike’s lighter material, such as Danny Rose, adds a welcome contrast.

The brother and sister’s more obvious collaborations, such as on The Scarecrow and the title track, are arguably the highlights of the album.

Bright Phoebus didn’t receive quite the reaction the Watersons were hoping for when it was released – not helped by technical difficulties.

“When it first came out, the hole in the middle of the album was in the wrong place!” remembers Carthy. “Critically it did OK but people hated it because The Watersons were icons of traditional music. A lot of people felt betrayed and almost refused to listen to it.

“Ewan MacColl and Peggy Seeger dismissed it out of hand. They realised later what a mistake they had made.”

The Watersons returned to the traditional music that had made their name – never touring the album or attempting a follow-up of original songs.

Gradually Lal and Mike Waterson’s songs have been rediscovered, with the likes of modern folk singer Alasdair Roberts performing them live, and Pulp frontman Jarvis Cocker taking part in the tour when it plays the Barbican.

Marry is keen to prove there is more to her mother than just her stunning voice and songwriting skills with an illustrated booklet to accompany the tour.

“Lal did stained-glass and all sorts of things,” says Carthy. “When she turned her hand to something, she would do it extraordinarily well.

“The Watersons were on tour in Northern California when she met someone who did stained-glass. She and this woman stayed up all night while Lal was taught how to do it.

“Marry wants to highlight how wide her range was as well as what a good songwriter she was.”