Folkin Great Great

Up until I was about 14, I thought everybody went to festivals and played folk music, says Kate Rusby. "Then some of my friends started going to discos and I thought, I must be a bit weird, me! .

Barnsley born and bred, the 26-year-old Yorkshire lass has made quite an impact on the UK scene over the last couple of years. Blessed with a voice like an angel and a wide-eyed, down-home charm, she has been dubbed "the sweetheart of English folk". Her praises have been sung by fellow musicians Richard Thompson and Bonnie Raitt as well as influential broadcasters such as John Peel and Terry Wogan.
Born into a music-loving family, Rusby began performing with the family ceilidh band at the age of 12. "My dad played the mandolin, mainly Irish rather than English folk," she says. "The Paul Brady/Andy Irvine album was big in our house for a long time. Then he got involved in supplying PA systems for gigs and festivals specialising in acoustic music. We were always taken along with him and we had a great time. I met some of my best friends at festivals."
She was introduced to another young singer, Kathryn Roberts and after performing together for a period, the duo recorded Kate Rusby & Kathryn Roberts, which won Folk Roots Magazine Album of the Year award, 1995. She has also performed with the all female ensemble the Poozies, appearing on their 1997 album Come Raise Your Head and 1998's Infinite Blue. In her own right Rusby has released two albums 1998's Hourglass, and her current album, Sleepless.
Unlike some of her contemporaries Beth Orton for example or even UK folk legends such as Sandy Denny and Linda Thompson Rusby has defiantly stuck to her folk roots, utilising only the minimum of accompaniment.
"It's the way I like to hear traditional music," she says. "The main reason for loving folk music is in the stories in the songs. You lose the value of the song if you're distracted by drumbeats and the like. Even my own songwriting I do in the traditional style. They're story songs, usually sad ones. Nine out of ten folk songs are sad actually happy songs are much harder to come by. But the one's that break my heart and move me to tears are the ones I like the most."
Despite her current profile Rusby laments the relatively poor standing of English folk in comparison with its near neighbours.
"It's really annoying," she says. "You go into a record shop and there's a sign for Irish or Scottish music but rarely one for English folk. It's probably our own fault. In Ireland there's music everywhere, in the pubs and on the radio, but over here if someone got up on a Saturday night and sang a folk song, people would be embarrassed. On the other hand, the festival scene is really healthy and there are a lot of youngsters playing."
Rusby's star rose even higher last year when Sleepless was nominated for the prestigious Mercury Music Prize.
"We were shocked when the nomination came through and there was a big hoo-ha about it," she recalls. "It's become the norm for a folk record to be nominated every year which is great even though they'll probably never win. Norma Waterson was in it a few years ago. Then it was Eliza Carty and then my record. But we got so much out of it in terms of publicity."
Rusby has attracted quite a few famous admirers along the way, including Blur's Graham Coxon who appears to have taken quite a shine to this English Rose.
"I met him at the Mercury awards last year and he was very nice. He said he'd bought my album and liked it. Then at the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards earlier this year I saw him in the audience and I thought. 'I must go over and say hello later on'. But when I went up to receive the award it was Graham who presented it to me. It was a complete surprise. Apparently he'd asked the organisers if he would come and do the presentation."
Despite her purist folk credentials Rusby is not immune to more contemporary sounds, professing a liking for Teenage Fanclub and Radiohead.
"I had a couple of teenage years where I loved Bon Jovi," she concedes. "Then I went back to folk. It's where my heart lies.
"I'm one of the luckiest people in the world," she concludes. "My parents run the record company, so I work when I want to, not because I have to."
Kate Rusby plays the Kilkenny Arts Festival on Saturday August 19th.