Overview
Overview
Rock solid, Margaret’s voice is right where it needs to be, whether delivering a clarion call for social justice, a tender lullaby, a lively or poignant folk tale, an uplifting hymn to Mother Earth, a rousing work song of the yardarm or an up-yours from a feisty lass. Margaret usually sings unaccompanied, favouring the folk tradition and some select contemporary writers. She has been involved in the Australian folk scene for over thirty years, as a soloist, a collaborator with songwriter John Warner, and a member of various duos and Forty Degrees South. She has recorded several albums.
Margaret Walters first realized her passion for folk songs in Brisbane in the early sixties. The music from the “folk boom” coincided with her hearing a field recording of Child ballads, and experiencing live folk music at the Brisbane Folk Centre. But it was many years before she sang in public and then the catalyst was a period of living in England where, for the first time, she heard live unaccompanied folk singing.
Her distinctive tones are heralded from Redfern to Redditch, from Maleny to Maidenhead and Maine, and her latest album, Power in a Song, has received high praise.
Visits to England (including tours in ’92, ’94, and ’98) keep reinforcing Margaret’s taste for finger in the ear, but she enjoys many styles of folk singing including the blues. She has an extensive repertoire and sings songs from Australia, the British Isles and a few American songs as well. Major influences are Frankie Armstrong, Peter Bellamy, Jez Lowe, and John Warner.