Review: Kate Rusby - opinions please?

Subject: RE: Review: Kate Rusby - opinions please?
From: GUEST,Skipjack K8
Date: 30 Jul 03 - 07:42 AM

She is the only artist from the folk idiom that I have shelled out for the whole catalogue. And she's a babe. And she likes me, the saucy minx. Ditto Dean and Ralphie

Subject: RE: Review: Kate Rusby - opinions please?
From: VIN
Date: 30 Jul 03 - 07:34 AM

Hi Dean/meister
I should'nt think Kate will be too upset by the criticism (hope not, anyway - it goes with the job as they say) and there's nowt wrong with criticism so long as it's constuctive. Anyway she'll know from the number of attendees at her gigs how well she's liked and respected so carry on kate, all is well....see u at the Lowry in September!.

Subject: RE: Review: Kate Rusby - opinions please?
From: Ralphie
Date: 30 Jul 03 - 06:58 AM

Kate R?
Brilliant!
Nuff Said..
Ralphie
PS. Let's see the negative contributors to this thread,do better....I can't.

Subject: RE: Review: Kate Rusby - opinions please?
From: Bassic
Date: 30 Jul 03 - 06:44 AM

See thread "The Pack at Warwick". (Blue clicky anyone? Sorry)

Subject: RE: Review: Kate Rusby - opinions please?
From: The DeanMeister
Date: 30 Jul 03 - 06:17 AM

Knowing that Kate often contributes to threads on here, I think she is likely to be upset at some of the comments on this one.

Kate is a lovely girl, with a beautiful voice, and has enjoyed great success through hard work. I have met her on several occasions, and any suggestion that she is "packaged by the Industry" are totally inaccurate.

Good luck to you, Kate.

Subject: RE: Review: Kate Rusby - opinions please?
From: VIN
Date: 30 Jul 03 - 05:25 AM

Well said John Barden, quite often in 'classical' music you see a description of a piece as a 'variation on a theme of....' so why not in folk / contempory music? If kate (with and without her band) can bring traditional music/song to a wider audience as has Eliza Carthy then may she and her interpretations live long and prosper! (to quote the pointy-eared one)

Subject: RE: Review: Kate Rusby - opinions please?
From: GUEST,monk
Date: 30 Jul 03 - 05:15 AM

So - where is this archetypal exemplar of folk music to which we should all aspire? Of course there shouldn't be one - so instead of slating Kate for what she is not, we should appreciate and enjoy what she is.

Nobody can be the "be all and end all" of folk (God forbid!), and nobody is obliged to please everyone at once. Kate is Kate, and that's good enough for me.

Subject: RE: Review: Kate Rusby - opinions please?
From: Greycap
Date: 30 Jul 03 - 05:13 AM

Can't join in the media excitement on this lady, I find her dull, with no depth to either solo playing or singing.
However,I thoroughly enjoyed her back-up singing with Tim O'Brien on a fairly recent tour. That is maybe her strength - my humble opinion.

Subject: RE: Review: Kate Rusby - opinions please?
From: zanderfish3 (inactive)
Date: 30 Jul 03 - 05:02 AM

She does not yet have the depth and presence of a great folk singer but in time she will develop into one of the ' greats ' indeed she gets better with every recording.

Subject: RE: Review: Kate Rusby - opinions please?
From: The Barden of England
Date: 30 Jul 03 - 04:54 AM

Here we go again, the same old 'Traditional' hobbyhorse. I love what Kate Rusby does, the way she sings, her musical skill, and her interpretations of different songs. Who decides what is 'Traditional' and how it should be sung? I'm a 58 year old, so not one of your young folkies, but I see nothing wrong in what she does, and I wouldn't dare set myself up as the mans who knows what 'Traditional' is. In classical music each conductor has their interpretation of a symphony or whatever, so why shouldn't we be allowed our interpretations of our favourite folk songs? Good luck to you Kate, not manufactured nor groomed, just bloody good!

Subject: RE: Review: Kate Rusby - opinions please?
From: GUEST,Santa
Date: 30 Jul 03 - 04:37 AM

She's a lovely personality with a beautiful voice. Live, she's wonderful.

On the less positive side, I don't think that she comes across as well on a CD, perhaps because there is a tendency to a certain sameness in treatment/sound. Not the first singer about whom such comments could be passed, of course.

She has been criticised for her arrangements of certain standards - hence a few jokey comments about Folk Police in her act! Some of the hoarier male shanty singers dislike her Ranzo - I think the original will survive. However traditional a stance you care to take, her treatment of other standards such as Arran Water and Recruited Collier is immaculate.

Subject: RE: Review: Kate Rusby - opinions please?
From: VIN
Date: 30 Jul 03 - 04:22 AM

I've seen Kate in concert on her own and with the band a few times and have thoroughly enjoyed the gigs. Her versions of songs like 'wild goose shanty' are bazzin. I've previously mentioned on a previous thread how the Spinners came in for, what i considered, to be totally unjustifiable criticism in the past from the 'orthodox' folk clique cos of the way they 'made it' professionally. I agree with s&r that the quotation marks in the opening thread are unwarranted. Folk music has been presented in all kinds of ways over the years from the String Band, Spinners, Fairport, Pentangle, Steeleye Span. I thnk Kate is just following this tradition as did Maddy Prior, Sandy Denny, Jaquie McShee, Shirley Collins, Eliza Carthy &c. I certainly don't believe Kate is being 'groomed' and 'packaged' by the record industry (if i'm not mistaken, does'nt she and hubby have their own studio?) i think she and her husband are too intelligent to allow that to happen.

Subject: RE: Review: Kate Rusby - opinions please?
From: GUEST,cittern
Date: 30 Jul 03 - 04:20 AM

Simply superb. She deserves her success and I am inspired by the fact that she has achieved so much with a set up which is basically a family run business.

I am constantly refering to the "Kate Rusby model" when discussing career-related decisions with my partner Julie.

Best regards
John Robinson
http://www.JulieEllison.co.uk

Subject: RE: Review: Kate Rusby - opinions please?
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 30 Jul 03 - 04:11 AM

I think she is great but I couldn't eat a whole one.

Plusses - All the above:-)

Minuses - Would not consider coming to Swinton Festival because it is too small:-(

Cheers

DtG

Subject: RE: Review: Kate Rusby - opinions please?
From: nutty
Date: 30 Jul 03 - 04:04 AM

I first met Kate Rusby at Holmfirth Festival some years ago when she was mainstaging with Katherine Roberts .... dancing with Black Adder ... and in her spare moments helping her Mum in Mrs Rusby's Kitchen.

Now as then, her folk career is a family affair.

Subject: RE: Review: Kate Rusby - opinions please?
From: GUEST,KB
Date: 30 Jul 03 - 02:52 AM

She sings and arranges beautifully (I love the rhythms she interweaves), and she comes across as a really nice bubbly person. She is an inspiration, and I can't see that that would dilute folk/trad. I hope she continues to be successful and that she continues to do what she wants to do.

Subject: RE: Review: Kate Rusby - opinions please?
From: michaelr
Date: 29 Jul 03 - 08:21 PM

She's cute as a button, and I love her voice, her choice of material (yes, even the rewrites and semi-trad compositions), her band, and her stage presence.

Cheers,
Michael

Subject: RE: Review: Kate Rusby - opinions please?
From: HuwG
Date: 29 Jul 03 - 08:03 PM

Purely as a snide aside, here is a link to an earlier thread, I snogged Kate Rusby last night, which has plenty of reviews, not really germane to her musical talents.

I can remember her singing five years ago as the second act to a local band in Glossop, "Still Life". Everyone thought that the sound was excellent, and that she deserved to be much better known. Still, local loyalty meant that we were miffed when she did the interview on Mike Harding the next week and "Still Life" weren't invited. (Oh, well, different genre anyway).

<bitch>Naturally, her voice lends itself to plaintive tales of miners' wives waiting anxiously at the pithead for news of their hubbies (or awaiting their sweethearts' return as collections of bits and pieces after having been conscripted to fight against Napoleon).</bitch>

However, her range is far broader than that, and is very evocative of many aspects of country life. The coalfields around Barnsley are as rich in industrial and folk heritige as any to be found in Britain, and she has used those roots to great effect. May she live long and prosper.

Subject: RE: Review: Kate Rusby - opinions please?
From: artbrooks
Date: 29 Jul 03 - 07:16 PM

I have a couple of her CDs and enjoy listening to her. She may not be goldplated "trad," but my experience has been that most of those who are, are unsuccessful. Good sound, spirited presentations.

Subject: RE: Review: Kate Rusby - opinions please?
From: s&r
Date: 29 Jul 03 - 07:11 PM

Kate is a charming young woman with a lifetime in and around folk music. We put her on stage as a fourteen year old with tremendous presence and a few nerves. She is from a musical family, plays fiddle guitar and keboard at a high level. We love her personality and music - she is unashamedly Yorkshire, and proud of her accent.

She has hardly been groomed by the Media and Record Companies - as far as I'm aware her father and other family members act as agent and record her themselves.

Her pedigree in Folk Music is impeccable, and doesn't warrant the pejorative quotation marks in the opening of this thread

Subject: RE: Review: Kate Rusby - opinions please?
From: andymac
Date: 29 Jul 03 - 05:55 PM

Personally I find her a bit "light".
She's very popular and good luck to her for making a successful career but I'm afraid she's not quite my thing as I find most of her material too lacking in substance. If she draws people into fol music then good, but already I have heard people use her as their source for content and style, which can only dilute the folk/traditional element even further.

Andy

Subject: RE: Review: Kate Rusby - opinions please?
From: George Papavgeris
Date: 29 Jul 03 - 05:50 PM

My personal view: She has a good voice and presence, and has an excellent band. She is "packaged"/manufactured (in the sense that she is being "groomed" by the record companies and media), and that puts some people off. On the other hand, she draws public, and especially younger audiences, which has to be a good thing, so good luck to her.

In the context of bringing young people to folk and perhaps generating the next Folk Revival, I see her as the "starter", but not the "sustainer". The latter will consist of people like Sam Pirt's The Pack - the ones that make it because of their will and energy alone.

Subject: Review: Kate Rusby - opinions please?
From: GUEST,Unicorn
Date: 29 Jul 03 - 05:34 PM

I have heard different views regarding this "folk artist". What do all you mudcatters think?