Kate Rusby

Kate Rusby

Kate Rusby (born 4 December 1973, in Jessops Hospital, Sheffield), is an English folk singer and songwriter from Penistone, South Yorkshire. Sometimes known as The Barnsley Nightingale, she has headlined various British national folk festivals, and is regarded as one of the most famous English folk singers of contemporary times. In 2001 The Guardian described her as "a superstar of the British acoustic scene." In 2007 the BBC website described her as "The first lady of young folkies". She is one of the few folk singers to have been nominated for the Mercury Prize.

Biography

Rusby was born into a family of musicians. After learning to play the guitar, the fiddle, and the piano, as well as to sing, she played in many local folk festivals as a child and adolescent, before joining (and becoming the lead vocalist of) the all-female Celtic folk band The Poozies. Her breakthrough album came in 1995. A collaboration with her friend and fellow Barnsley folk singer Kathryn Roberts was simply titled "Kate Rusby & Kathryn Roberts". In 1997, with the help of her family, she recorded and released her first solo album, Hourglass. Since then she has gone on to receive acclaim in her home country and abroad, and her family continues to help her with all aspects of her professional career.

The Scottish fiddler John McCusker (formerly of the Battlefield Band) produced most of Rusby's recordings up to The Girl Who Couldn't Fly and played in her band. Rusby and McCusker were married in August 2001, but are now divorced.

Rusby at the Larmer Tree Festival 2008

Rusby was also a member of the folk group, Equation, later to be replaced by Cara Dillon. In its early lineup, Equation also featured Rusby's erstwhile performing partner Kathryn Roberts and Mercury-nominated artist Seth Lakeman. Their demo CD, In Session, had a small commercial release.

In 2004 she contributed a previously unreleased song, "Wandering Soul", to the soundtrack of the BBC documentary series Billy Connolly's World Tour of New Zealand.

In 2006 she enjoyed a spell in the UK Top Ten singles chart with "All Over Again", a duet with Ronan Keating. The single reached number 6 in June 2006. She also made a large vocal contribution to the successful debut solo album of Idlewild's lead singer, Roddy Woomble. In the same year her rendition of The Kinks' "The Village Green Preservation Society" was used as the theme tune to the BBC comedy Jam & Jerusalem.

An album titled Awkward Annie was released on 3 September 2007. Her version of "The Village Green Preservation Society" is included as a bonus track. The album was launched at the 2007 Cambridge Folk Festival.

Awards

In 1999 she was nominated for the Mercury Music Prize. She is the recipient of four BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards: in 2000 she won Folk Singer of the Year and Best Album (for Sleepless); in 2002 she was awarded Best Original Song (for "Who Will Sing Me Lullabies"). In 2006 she was nominated for Best Original Song (for "No Names" with Roddy Woomble from Idlewild) and for Best Album (for The Girl Who Couldn't Fly) and won Best Live Act. In 2007 she took a Garden Sessions song of the year for "Awkward Annie".

Discography

Albums

• Hourglass (1997)
• Sleepless (1999)
• Little Lights (2001)
• 10 (2002)
• Heartlands (2003)
• Underneath the Stars (2003)
• The Girl Who Couldn't Fly (2005)
• Awkward Annie (2007) #2 UK Indie
• Sweet Bells (2008)

Singles

• "Cowsong" (1999)
• "Withered and Died" (2001)
• "Underneath the Stars" (2003)
• "All Over Again" (2006) (duet with Ronan Keating reached #6 in UK singles chart)
• "Who Knows Where the Time Goes?" (2008)

DVDs

• Live From Leeds (2004)

Other appearances

• Intuition (1993) — a collection of folk songs by various South Yorkshire artists, including Kate Rusby, Julie Matthews and Kathryn Roberts
• Equation — In Session (with Equation (1995))
• Kate Rusby & Kathryn Roberts (1995)
• Over the Hills & Far Away: The Music of Sharpe (various artists) (1996)
• Infinite Blue (with The Poozies, 1999)
• Heartlands (as Herself, 2002)
• My Secret is My Silence (with Roddy Woomble, 2006)
• Jam & Jerusalem (with Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders, 2006)

External links

• Official website biography
• BBC Music Biography
• Unofficial Kate fan site
• Equation website, of which Rusby was once a member Samples of her work with them can be streamed from this site.
• Rusby's interview about her article in Wikipedia