Tuesday, January 12, 2010

Introducing Kate Rusby

One of my Christmas presents arrived in the mail today. It took a while since it came from the other side of the pond. It was a Kate Rusby Songbook, Volume II.

I discovered Kate Rusby on Pandora Radio. I started by asking for Celtic music, and her song just happened to be the first one they played. I gave it a "thumbs up", and they played more. I created a Kate Rusby Radio station and became, along with the rest of Britain's folkies, a big fan. Kate has a sweet, uncomplicated voice and brings her own unique style to traditional ballads and many of her own compositions. She is known as Britain's Queen of Folk and is popular in the same way there as Allison Kraus is here.

Her songbook makes it look like her songs are ultra simple, but her C, F, and G are not standard C, F, and G. She uses alternate tunings, such as double drop D and DADGAD, and open chord shapes to create her unique sound. There is a Celtic influence to her style, but it is her own. Her Christmas CD "Sweet Bells" provided the soundtrack for my Christmas Season this year. On it she features traditional Yorkshire Village Carols and original tunes to traditional lyrics. My favorite cut is hard to choose, since I love the whole album, but I find myself listening to "A Miner's Dream of Home" again and again. I have been working on my own version of it on the guitar and enjoying that, too. I use a short cut capo to achieve that alternate tuning sound (I didn't figure that out; my guitar teacher did).

If you are interested in sampling a little bit of her music, she has a few free cuts on her My Space page and I'll include a link to some You Tube videos. Her accent is charming and her music is engaging. I like it. See what you think.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j_GgsRC-Sks From "Sweet Bells"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=obXLsp9HRNk "Little Jack Frost"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=db1IchkKpLw "The Lark" (not crazy about the video, but you can hear the song)

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