Soar With The Barnsley Nightingale, Kate Rusby

Kate Rusby has earned her nickname,"The Barnsley Nightingale," with her soothing voice and small-town English charm. She has recorded more than a dozen albums, and won numerous awards for songs, albums, and her live act. She frequently tours her native England as well as many other countries.

Schedule

Kate Rusby will be playing at the Anvil Arts in Basingstoke, The Playhouse in Weston-super-Mare, Yeovil's Octagon Theatre and the Cheltenham Town Hall. Rusby will also appear at the Lowry in Salford Quays, the Sheffield City Hall, St. George's Hall in Bradford and the Birmingham Symphony Hall, along with stops in York, London, Bath, Malvern, Harrogate, Huddersfield and Nottingham.

Trivia

Rusby has spent her life mastering folk music. She began singing and playing the fiddle, piano, and guitar as a child, learning from her musical parents, and she was invited to play at folk festivals as a teenager. She has continued the tradition of raising children in a family of musicians by marrying Irish folk guitarist Damien O'Kane. They have two daughters. Much of her extended family is employed at the record label that she founded to manage her own recording career.

Singer

In the mid-90's, while still a teenager, Rusby was a singer for the folk band The Poozies, an all-female group specialising in traditional Celtic music. She left the band to focus on her solo career, which was already blossoming. She has gone on to become one of the biggest names in British folk music, with a strong worldwide following as well.

Breakthrough

Although she had released a duet album with a friend in 1995, Kate Rusby & Kathryn Roberts, she didn't achieve international recognition until her solo debut in 1997. Hourglass blended Rusby's original songwriting with folk classics, a country song, and even an old ballad about knights and dragons. David Steele added backup vocals and John McCusker played the fiddle on Hourglass.

Hit Albums

Rusby's sophomore effort, Sleepless, brought her even more fame and recognition in 1999, as it was nominated for the prestigious Mercury Prize, awarded for the best UK album of the year. In 2004, she showed how her songwriting ability had developed and matured, including more of her own work, on the album Underneath the Stars. This album also experimented with brass instruments, rarely heard in folk music.

She released the second of two Christmas albums in 2011, this one called While Mortals Sleep. She complemented widely known Christmas classics such as "Little Town of Bethlehem" with songs that honoured her heritage in Northern England, including the Yorkshire favourite "Cranbrook." In 2006, she worked with Irish musician Ronan Keating to release the single "All Over Again," which reached No. 6 on the UK Singles Chart.

Show Experience

Fans with Kate Rusby tickets can expect a no-frills stage setup in traditional folk style. In addition to singing and guitar playing, she is usually accompanied by her husband Damien O'Kane and the acoustic bass player Duncan Lyell. Julian Sutton often contributes on accordion, and they are also sometimes joined by a brass quintet. Though she is called the "first lady of folk," her shows maintain a cozy, intimate feel, allowing Rusby to interact with the audience, and giving them an up-close and personal experience.

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