Kate Rusby
Background information
Born	December 1, 1973.
Origin	Barnsley, South Yorkshire, UK
Genre(s)	English folk music
Occupation(s)	Singer
Years active	1995-Present
Label(s)	Pure Records
Associated acts	John McCusker, Roddy Woomble
Website	www.katerusby.com

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

Contents 1 Biography 2 Awards 3 Discography 3.1 Albums 3.2 Singles 3.3 DVDs 3.4 Other Appearances 4 External links

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 acclaim in her home country and abroad, and her family continues to help her with all aspects of her professional career.

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 2004 she contributed a previously unreleased song, 'Wandering soul', to the soundtrack of the BBC documentary series Billy Connolly's World Tour of New Zealand.

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 number 6 in June 2006. She also made a large vocal contribution to the successful debut solo album of Idlewild's lead singer, Roddy Woomble. 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.

A new album titled Awkward Annie is due to be released on the 3rd September 2007.

Awards

In 1999 she was nominated for the Mercury Music Prize. She is the recipient of 4 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.

Discography

Albums

• Hourglass (1997)
• Sleepless (1999)
• Little Lights (2001)
• 10 (2002)
• Heartlands (2003)
• Underneath the Stars (2003)
• The Girl Who Couldn't Fly (2005)
• Awkward Annie (2007)

Singles

• Cowsong (1999)
• Withered and Died (2001)
• Underneath the Stars (2003)
• All Over Again (2006) (duet with Ronan Keating reached #6 in UK singles chart)

DVDs

• Live from Leeds (2004)

Other Appearances

• Intuition (1993) - a collection of folk songs by various South Yorkshire artists, including Kate Rusby and Kathryn Roberts
• Equation - In Session (with Equation (1995))
• Kate Rusby & Kathryn Roberts (1995)
• Over the Hills & Far Away: The Music of Sharpe (various artists) (1996)
• Infinite Blue (with The Poozies, 1999)
• My Secret is My Silence (with Roddy Woomble, 2006)
• Jam and Jerusalem (with Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders, 2006)

External links

• UK Kate Rusby Fan Site
• Official website biography
• BBC Music Biography
• Unofficial Kate fan site
• Equation website, of which Kate was once a member Samples of her work with them can be streamed from this site.
• Kate's MySpace Page