Kate Rusby
| Kate Rusby | |
|---|---|
Rusby at the 2005 Cambridge Folk Festival
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| Background information | |
| Birth name | Kate Anna Rusby |
| Born |
4 December 1973 Barnsley, England |
| Origin | Cawthorne, Barnsley, England |
| Genres | English folk music |
| Occupation(s) | Singer-songwriter |
| Instruments | Guitar, vocals, piano |
| Years active | 1992–present |
| Labels | Pure Records |
| Associated acts |
Damien O'Kane, The Poozies |
| Website | katerusby |
Kate Anna Rusby (born 4 December 1973) is an English folk singer and songwriter from Penistone, Barnsley. Sometimes known as "The Barnsley Nightingale", she has headlined various British national folk festivals, and is one of the most noted contemporary English folk singers. 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.
Rusby was born into a family of musicians in 1973 in Barnsley, West Riding of Yorkshire, England. 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. 1995 saw the release of her breakthrough album, Kate Rusby & Kathryn Roberts, a collaboration with her friend and fellow Barnsley folk singer Kathryn Roberts. In 1997, with the help of her family, Rusby 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.
Rusby was also a member of the folk group Equation, later to be replaced by Cara Dillon. The early line-up also featured Rusby's erstwhile performing partner Kathryn Roberts and Mercury-nominated artist Seth Lakeman. Their first EP, In Session, had a small commercial release and led to them signing a major record deal with WEA.
The previously unreleased song "Wandering Soul" was Rusby's contribution to the soundtrack for Billy Connolly's World Tour of New Zealand, an eight-part BBC television documentary series originally broadcast in November 2004.
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