This is the fifth Waterson:Carthy CD and as worthy as any of its illustrious predecessors. As before, English folk veterans husband and wife Martin Carthy and Norma Waterson perform with their daughter, fiddler/vocalist Eliza Carthy, who has already made a name for herself on the international folk scene. "Folk music" in the United Kingdom is pretty much that -- traditional and tradition-based music, not the confessional, singer-songwriter acoustic pop irritatingly and misleadingly labeled "folk" on this side of the water.

On its rare excursion into nontraditional material, W:C turns new songs into old-sounding ones. On this album it's the Grateful Dead's lovely "Black Muddy Water," and it sounds in no way out of place. Otherwise, joined by melodeon player and singer Tim Van Eyken (whose striking vocal on "Napoleon's Death" leaves the listener wanting more), the band explores ballads and tunes from the English countryside. W:C's knowledge of the tradition is legendary, the pieces well chosen and generally not well known; even if the title looks familiar, the variant isn't.

A particularly pleasing surprise is the version of "Twenty One Years on Dartmoor," whose origin is in the American hillbilly song "Twenty One Years." Written in the 1920s by Bob Miller (best known for the old-time standard "What Does the Deep Sea Say?") and recorded by several first-generation bluegrass groups, it was, like much early commercial country music, a folk-like composition. At some point it crossed the ocean and evolved into a genuine folk song, and a very fine one indeed.

English traditional music has been splendidly served on the many recordings of Martin Carthy, the Watersons and Eliza Carthy. Fishes & Fine Yellow Sand is as masterly as one has come to expect, a happy continuation of a family-music tradition within the larger English-music tradition. Really, it doesn't get any better than this.