Kate Rusby

One of Britain's most celebrated contemporary folk singer/songwriters, Kate Rusby bears a gentle sound imbued with poetic grace and traces of the traditional Celtic scene from which she initially emerged. After earning widespread acclaim in 1999 for her Mercury Prize-nominated second album, Sleepless, she spent the next decade establishing herself as a perennial star of the U.K. folk scene with albums like 2003 Underneath the Stars and 2007's Awkward Annie. Her output has remained both prolific and varied with collaborative sets like 2012's star-studded 20, 2016's more pop-textured Life in a Paper Boat, and her fist all-traditional collection, Hand Me Down, which upon its 2020 release earned the highest U.K. chart position of her career at number 12. A celebration of her 30 years as a professional musician, 2022's 30: Happy Returns featured collaborations with inspirations spanning Ladysmith Black Mambazo, Richard Hawley, and Beth Nielsen Chapman, among many others.