Kate Rusby: Voice of T'Angel
If you were to be marooned on a desert island for an indefinite period, and you could only listen to one female singer-songwriter, who would you choose?
For me, the choice is easy, despite the fact that I like many artists who fall into that category.
It has to be Kate Rusby, the Angel of Barnsley.
The first time I heard her voice, on ‘The Good Man’, track one of her 2003 album “Underneath the Stars” I was struck by two things: the startling purity of her tone, and the unvarnished Barnsley accent which made the word ‘much’ sound like ‘mooooooooooooch’. I found both aspects utterly delighful and have been hoooooooooked ever since.
I saw Kate in concert last night as part of the Oxford Folk Festival, and she put on a truly memorable performance which delighted the large sell-out crowd. Backed by her regular bass player Andy Seward, and joined by Donald Grant and his Red Skies string ensemble, she mesmerised the audience for the best part of 90 minutes.
If I could have sent Kate my ‘Desert Island Set-list’ then what she chose to play last night was pretty much a carbon copy. Apart from the opening song (whose title I didn’t catch thanks to the very rude couple sat behind us and talked incessantly through the first four songs), and a stunning version of the traditional song ‘I am stretched on your grave’ that closed the first half, she played most of my favourite tracks from her last five albums.
These included:
- ‘I courted a sailor’ and ‘Who will sing me lullabies’ from “Little Lights“
- ‘Sir Eglamore’ and ‘The Drowned Lovers’ from “10“
- ‘Let me be’ and ‘Underneath the Stars’ from “Underneath the Stars“
- ‘You belong to me’, ‘The Lark’ and ‘Take my Hand’ from “The Girl Who Couldn’t Fly“
- ‘Bitter Boy’ and ‘Planets’ from “Awkward Annie“
If you’re not familiar with Kate’s music or these songs, I would simply urge you to seek them out at your earliest convenience. If you are, I hope you’d agree that this represents a high calibre selection from her considerable back catalogue. As it does on rare but very special occasions, the sound, setting and musicianship all blended beautifully to lift this collection of gorgeous songs to a higher level. I could write all night and still never adequately express how it made me feel – I just sat there with a massive grin on my face, hairs on the back of my neck bristling, and shivers running up and down my spine. And that was nothing to do with a draught in the Town Hall auditorium.
The other attribute of a Kate Rusby gig that shouldn’t be underestimated is the high quality banter between the songs. The band clearly have a lot of fun whilst touring, and whilst I wouldn’t quite go along with the Guardian reviewer who described Ms Rusby as a stand-up comedian, she is often quite amusing and has an endearing charm and infectious laugh.
She is also a very accomplished songwriter, and I hadn’t realised until last night just how many of the songs she performs are her own compositions. The fact that they blend so seamlessly with the traditional songs on her albums is a testament to her considerable talent of creating simple but beautiful folk songs for a modern audience.
Despite being four months pregnant, Kate is still touring for the foreseeable future – catch her while you can!
