Marry Waterson explains that she has two voices. There’s the powerful one that you would expect to hear as she strides to the front of the stage with her hands on her hips. And then there’s the intimate, breathy style that dominates her new album Two Wolves, a collaboration with the laid-back acoustic guitarist David A Jaycock which has won them two nominations for this month’s BBC Folk awards.

Here they were joined by fiddler Alison Cotton and the album’s two producers, with Kate St John playing piano, accordion and oboe, and Neill MacColl surrounded by an array of instruments, including banjo and electric guitar. They added textures and embellishment to songs that were often dreamlike, surreal and mysterious, and dealt with memories of childhood and themes that ranged from creativity and self-doubt (Digging for Diamonds) to the survival of village communities (Hoping to be Saved) or positive thinking (the inspired title track, which included some muted wolf-like howls). The reflective mood was interrupted by the occasional more edgy piece like Emotional Vampire, here given extra bite thanks to MacColl’s electric guitar.

Marry is a complex lady whose songs reflect the poetic work of her remarkable mother Lal Waterson, a member of that celebrated folk quartet, the Watersons. Here, she paid tribute to her mum with one of her favourite traditional songs The Welcome Sailor, and a sing-along a cappella treatment of her rousing Some Old Salty. Then there was a salute to her uncle, the late Mike Waterson, with Velvet Yeller, cleverly intercut with a recording of his own singing. And Neill’s dad Ewan MacColl was remembered with a poignant version of The Exile Song, which Marry recorded for the Joy of Living project. A few more powerful songs would have been welcome but this was an impressive exercise in mixing brave new work and nostalgia.