Kate Rusby

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Kate Rusby.

Kate Rusby (born 1 December 1973) is a folk singer and songwriter from Barnsley, Yorkshire, England. She has headlined various United Kingdom national folk festivals, and is regarded as one of the most famous English folk singers of contemporary times.

1 Biography
2 Awards
3 Discography
4 External links

[edit] Biography

Kate 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 noted acclaim in her home country and abroad, and her family continues to help her with all aspects of her professional career as a musician.

The Scottish fiddler John McCusker (formerly of the Battlefield Band) produces Kate's recordings and plays in her band. Kate and John have been married since August 2001 and live in Yorkshire.

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

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 a peak of number 6 in June 2006. 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 and Jerusalem.

[edit] 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 Lullabye). 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.

[edit] Discography

[edit] Albums

Kate Rusby & Kathryn Roberts (1995) #8 UK
Hourglass (1997) #37 UK
Infinite Blue (with The Poozies, 1999) #15 UK
Sleepless (1999) #9 UK
Little Lights (2001) #20 UK
10 (2002) #18 UK
Heartlands (2003) Out - UK Charts
Underneath the Stars (2003) #12 UK
The Girl Who Couldn't Fly (2005) #17 UK

[edit] DVDs

Live from Leeds (2004) #61 UK

[edit] Singles

Cowsong (1999) #9 UK
Withered and Died (2001) #18 UK
Underneath the Stars (2003) #10 UK
All Over Again (2006) Duet with Ronan Keating #6 UK

[edit] Other Appearances

Equation - In Session (1995)
Intuition (1993) - a collection of folk songs by various South Yorkshire artists, including Kate Rusby, and Kathryn Roberts