Kate Rusby
Kate Rusby is one of the best-known singers of English traditional song, sometimes called the Barnsley Nightingale. She sings traditional ballads alongside her own songs, and records for Pure Records.
- Born
- 4 December 1973, Penistone, Yorkshire
- Full name
- Kate Anna Rusby
- Plays
- Vocals, guitar, piano, fiddle
- Label
- Pure Records
- Earlier bands
- The Poozies, Equation
Career
Rusby sang with the all-female band The Poozies and was a member of Equation before going solo. Her 1995 duo album with Kathryn Roberts, Kate Rusby & Kathryn Roberts, was her breakthrough, and her first solo album, Hourglass, followed in 1997. She is one of the few folk singers ever nominated for the Mercury Prize.
At the 2000 BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards she won Folk Singer of the Year and Best Album, for Sleepless. She won Best Original Song in 2002 for "Who Will Sing Me Lullabies" and Best Live Act in 2006. Her 2006 duet with Ronan Keating, "All Over Again", reached No. 6 in the UK, and her version of the Kinks' "The Village Green Preservation Society" became the theme of the BBC sitcom Jam & Jerusalem. In 2022 she marked thirty years as a professional musician with 30: Happy Returns.
The Christmas albums
Since Sweet Bells (2008) Rusby has made a series of Christmas albums, including While Mortals Sleep (2011), The Frost Is All Over (2015), Angels and Men (2017), Holly Head (2019) and Light Years (2023).
Selected albums
| Year | Album |
|---|---|
| 1997 | Hourglass |
| 1999 | Sleepless |
| 2005 | The Girl Who Couldn't Fly |
| 2007 | Awkward Annie |
| 2010 | Make the Light |
| 2016 | Life in a Paper Boat |
Explore more British and Irish traditional music: Battlefield Band · The Chieftains · The Water Is Wide