The Waterboys Return to the ‘Blues’

Inside the second box set of ‘Fisherman’s’-era rarities

September 17, 2026September 17, 2026 Ron Hart 0 Comments 2026, Atlantic Rain: The Lost Fisherman’s Blues Recordings, Fisherman's Blues, Mike Scott, The Fisherman Box, The Waterboys

Mike Scott of The Waterboys during the Fisherman’s Blues era. (Image: Chrysalis Records)

If you were to ask me what the best Waterboys album is — the only one you should own if you could only own one — that’s 1988’s Fisherman’s Blues.

Though Karl Wallinger had left the band to form World Party, his absence didn’t phase chief Waterboy Mike Scott’s drive to record as much music as humanly possible in the wake of 1986’s critically acclaimed third album This Is The Sea. Moving beyond the “Big Music” rock sound of their previous works, Fisherman’s Blues found Scott and company chose to venture into a more exploratory hybrid of traditional Irish music, traditional Scottish music, country and rootsy rock ‘n’ roll.

“While U2 was off discovering America, Mike Scott and crew relocated from Glasgow to Dublin to draw inspiration from Irish character and culture,” wrote veteran music critic Steve Hochman for Rolling Stone in a review shortly after the release of Fisherman’s Blues. “Scott has forged a folkier sound than he has used before, a sound that is at once simpler and more accomplished and varied than what had sometimes seemed, in the past, an overwhelming, if not overblown, approach.”

Nearly 40 years later, Fisherman’s Blues remains an earthier alternative to the anthemic bombast of U2’s The Joshua Tree and Rattle & Hum upon its original release in October of ’88, a stirring precursor to the kind of music a young Glen Hansard would be soon creating with The Frames upon their founding two years later in 1990.

The Waterboys *Fisherman’s Blues*, Chrysalis Records 1988

Yet the original LP was only the tip of the iceberg in terms of the music Scott and the band had created while recording Fisherman’s Blues. Initially, it was believed that the final word was the 2013 7-disc box set Fisherman’s Box: The Complete Fisherman’s Blues Sessions (1986-1988), containing 121 tracks from the album sessions including all those on the original record and subsequent editions, plus a further 85 unreleased tracks.

However, Scott recently uncovered a trove of previously unheard music from the era that were on reels only marked “instrumental,” “unknown,” “soundcheck” or “jam.” It was there he found many long-forgotten release-worthy performances, including never before heard songs such as “Come Back To Galway,” ‘Light Shine On Me’ and ‘Endless Store’, the epic ‘Man With The Wind At His Heels’, and gorgeous covers of numbers by The Beatles, Bob Dylan, Hank Williams, Woody Guthrie and Willie Nelson.

These and many other lost treasures have been collected to create Atlantic Rain: The Lost Fisherman’s Blues Recordings, a new three-CD set comprising 25 previously unheard tracks from those rediscovered reels that will bring a new layer of understanding and enjoyment to this period of The Waterboys.

“At that time, working through such a large amount of music for the boxset, I had no extra attention to give to the hinterland of studio tapes marked ‘untitled’ or ‘jam,’ which I hadn’t listened to since they were recorded,” Scott writes in the intro to the 53-page book accompanying the set. “When I perused the archival tape lists held by the record label my eye tended to skate over these and I never counted how many there were. But recently, with the encouragement of Blue Raincoat Music who hold the copyright, I began listening to digital transfers of these overlooked tapes, on which more recordings were waiting to be discovered including many that myself and the rest of the band don’t even remember playing.”

Released back in July by Chrysalis Records’ fantastic reissue department, Atlantic Rain — as you can surmise from the tracklist below — is yet another prosperous example of the unbridled creativity and productivity of Mike Scott and the Waterboys between 1986 and 1988, crafting songs across a rubicon of genres from soul to gospel to Celtic to experimental rock that produced nearly 400 multitrack reels of music.

The Waterboys *Atlantic Rain: The Lost Fisherman’s Blues Recordings*, Chrysalis Records 2026

This may or may not be the final word on these particular sessions, but one never knows.

Atlantic Rain-The Lost Fisherman’s Blues Recordings: Available on 3CD, 3LPs and Digital editions (same track listing for all configurations). The package includes a 54-page deluxe book with contextual notes and track by track by Mike Scott.

Atlantic Rain Tracklisting:

Too Close To Heaven (soul version) (5.32)

Come Back To Galway (8.51)

The Man With The Wind At His Heels (7.15)

And Then The Gods (2.47)

Light Shine On Me (3.14)

Endless Store (5.39)

This Land Is Your Land (studio version) (4.55)

Saints And Angels (1988 version) (4.41)

I Can’t Feel At Home In This World Anymore (2.35)

Knockin’ On Heavens Door (3.54)

Honky Tonkin’ (2.04)