Kate Rusby

Born in Penistone, South Yorkshire, Kate Rusby has been part of the English folk revival since the 1990s, with an approach centered on traditional ballads, singer-songwriter material and spare acoustic arrangements that blend guitars, strings and Celtic colours. From a musical family, she performed early on at local folk festivals before joining The Poozies and later Equation, two groups that place her beginnings between the British stage and contemporary folk repertoire. Her solo discography opens with Hourglass (1997), followed by Sleepless (1999), Little Lights (2001), Awkward Annie (2007), Make the Light (2010), Ghost (2014), Life in a Paper Boat (2016), Philosophers, Poets & Kings (2019) and 30: Happy Returns (2022). She has also developed a recurring strand of Christmas recordings with Sweet Bells (2008), While Mortals Sleep (2011) and Light Years (2023). Over her career she has collaborated with Kathryn Roberts, John McCusker, Damien O’Kane and Ronan Keating, while remaining associated with an English folk scene attentive to traditional repertoires and their contemporary reworkings. Sleepless was nominated for the Mercury Prize in 1999.