By Hannah Nepilova
Who knows what else this English folk singer might have achieved, had she not died suddenly, aged 55, of cancer diagnosed only ten days before.
As it is, she produced a significant body of songs. Stark but mesmerising, they often focused on the bleaker side of life.
An orphan brought up by her grandmother of part Gypsy descent, Waterson grew up singing with her siblings. Together they opened their own folk club in a pub in their native city of Hull. By the mid 1960s they had developed their own unaccompanied style singing harmony style re-workings of traditional English songs.
Later, when Waterson branched off on her own, she would draw on influences ranging from jazz and ragtime. But that facility with harmony, and her ability to take it in unexpected directions, stood her in good stead throughout her relatively short life, contributing to a musical voice that was as original as it was powerful.