Page 6 - May issue 2021

THE RETURN OF
THE BARNSLEY NIGHTINGALE
By Rob Atkins
Kate Rusby, aka ‘The Barnsley Nightingale’ and also proclaimed by the BBC as ‘The First Lady Of Young Folkies’, was born in Barnsley, Yorkshire, England, on December 4th, 1973, into a family of musicians and singers. Both her parents played and sang -as did many close relatives. Music and song was a natural accompaniment to her growing up. By an early age she had become proficient on piano, guitar, and fiddle. She had also developed the pure, softly-sweet, singing voice that was later to earn her the soubriquet ‘The Barnsley Nightingale’.
Along with this vocal and instrumental dexterity, Kate imbibed much of the lore, history, and musical heritage, of the surrounding Yorkshire countryside -and of British traditional music in general. Throughout her childhood and adolescence she presented this affinity with local ‘roots’ music to a wider audience, not only via the normal channels of school and church halls, but also through singing -at a relatively early age- in folk clubs and at festivals. In 1993, a locally-produced album, Intuition, included her vocals on disc for the first time. Featuring five female Yorkshire artists, it was to lead to her later appearances in the line-ups of two future folk bands: the strongly Celtic-influenced ‘Equation’ and the all- female ‘Poozies’.
These early albums are still popular in folk circles, but it was with her friend andfellow ‘Equation’ member, Kathryn Roberts, another Barnsley girl (who had also sang on the Intuition LP) that Kate first came to prominence. An album, simply entitled Kate Rusby & Kathryn Roberts, proved to be the stepping stone towards solo careers for both girls. The 1995 debut disc of a label set up by Kate’s father, it remains to this day a fine showcase of traditional songs gathered from all corners of the British Isles, and was nominated ‘Album Of The Year’ by Folk Roots magazine.
For Kate in particular, it was to be a breakthrough, and for the label, ‘Pure Records’, the beginnings of a family business that was to embrace Kate’s mother, father, and siblings, in a veritable ‘cottage industry’ as far removed from ‘Tin Pan Alley’ as any northern English country village can be from a busy street amid the ‘Big Apple’.
The label also produced Kate’s first solo album, Hourglass, in 1997, which was followed a year later by Sleepless. A third album, Little Lights came out in 2001, while the fourth, Heartlands, appeared in 2003. The latter (soundtrack of a Brit ‘road movie’ of the same name), utilised songs put together from preceding releases -but given enhanced treatments, plus instrumental mood music- by Kate and her then husband, John McCusker, a Scottish fiddler she’d married in 2001. In similar vein their next collection, named 10 (to celebrate ten years in the music business) was another reappraisal of tracks from earlier albums, re-recorded and remixed. It alsocontains previously unreleased material, plus a number of cuts from live shows. It was released the same year as Heartlands. The content of these early albums islargely traditional, but do include covers of songs from contemporary folk artists, as well as originals written by Kate herself.
In the meantime, the down-to-earth, working class lass from Yorkshire had been endearing herself to ever-expanding audiences via the medium of live gigs at theatres and festivals. Here -alongside her voice and music- she was able to display a wacky sense of humour and unspoiled personality to a wider circle of potential admirers -not all of them strictly hard and fast, unyielding, folk fans. Already, two of her traditional songs had appeared on a compilation CD, Over The Hills And Far Away, dedicated to the hit TV series, Sharpe, starring Sean Bean; her rendition of Wandering Soul, had featured
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