FOLK award-winner and Mercury Prize nominee Kate Rusby is bringing her big spring tour to Ulverston later this month.

The show on Friday May 25 will be her first visit to the Coronation Hall since 2015, and the last night of what has been a very successful run of shows so far.

"The tour has been totally fantastic," she says.

"It's really nice when you start a tour and sit down to choose which songs you want to play. Of course, there's a lot to choose from in our back catalogue now, so it's difficult to decide, but people always seem really receptive.

"We did our first stint at the start of April and then had a couple of weeks off in the middle.

"We've got a new puppy, so it was a chance for it to settle in, but it's not been a break from work exactly as we're always busy. My husband Damien, who is also in the band, has been finishing off an album and I've also got so much to do at the moment."

The Yorkshire-born singer-songwriter has been a regular visitor to Cumbria since she was nominated for a Mercury Music Prize in 1999, and she has continued to further her reputation as one of the country's most captivating performers.

Kate has 15 studio albums to her name already, and the rest of the band is now settled in as one tight unit - her multi-instrumentalist husband Damien O'Kane has been part of the live line-up for around a decade, while bassist and Moog player Duncan Lyle, accordionist Nick Cooke and guitarist Steven Byrnes have all toured for the past five years or more.

Kate continues: "There's a lot of music that none of them were part of when it was written, so to them it's brand-new.
Kate Rusby at a previous Cumbrian concert

"They learn the songs for the first time, and they say things like 'I can't quite figure out what was being played there so I've done this', and it gives the songs a new feel and a new lease of life.

"Re-doing an old song is like having a catch-up and a cup of tea with an old friend and you get reacquainted with them.

"Some of my songs marked certain points in my life and times of real grief, so they were too emotional and too difficult to sing. But enough time has passed now and they're not as passionate in the same way so I can finally sing them live now.

"The lovely thing about touring is when you introduce a song from an old album. I'd expect people to be muttering or sighing, because they want to hear newer stuff, but you can see them turning to each other and whisper excitedly when they recognise them."

As well as the old songs being included in the set-list for this tour, there is still a focus on 2016’s enthralling Life In A Paper Boat album, with some of those songs featuring in Ulverston for the first time.

Ever the workaholic, Kate still manages to deliver a record almost every year.

Even when this tour comes to its conclusion in Ulverston, there won't be any let up - there are a couple of projects in the pipeline as well as the next full-length album.

And the small matter of a big holiday of a lifetime to squeeze in.

She says: "I seem to alternate between Christmas albums and 'normal' albums each year now, so I'm working on a new normal one that we'll be recording in the autumn.

"I've been working on a couple of projects that I'm really excited about, and that's taken my focus away from the album a little bit: there's a thing for the Great Exhibition of the North, which I'm desperate to tell everyone about but can't; and another where I've been asked to write a song for a play that marks the 180th anniversary of a pit disaster in Silkstone Common, near to where we live, where 20-odd children died. It's been quite harrowing doing my research for it, but it's a very interesting one.

"So I'm always busy. Although we'll be on holiday after this tour, I'm sure we'll be busy every day.

"I absolutely love coming to Ulverston. It's quite a secluded town, so you get the feeling that everyone at the concert is from the local area and it's not just made up of folk music fans - they're just regular people that want to come out and watch a concert, and that makes me so proud.

"We've camped up that way a few times, but even though this is the last night of the tour, we have to drive back home straight after the gig. We're going on our big family holiday of a lifetime to Disney World in Florida the next day - so sadly we can't have a late night out around Ulverston afterwards eating burgers from the van."

Kate Rusby appears at the Coronation Hall, in Ulverston, on Friday May 25, from 7.45pm. Tickets are available from the venue's box office.

Competition

The Mail has a pair of tickets and a signed copy of Kate's album Life In A Paper Boat up for grabs.

To be in with a chance of winning, please answer the following question:

In which year was Kate Rusby nominated for the Mercury Music Prize?

Send your answer on a postcard to: Kate Rusby competition, c/o Karl Steel, The Mail, Abbey Road, Barrow, Cumbria, LA14 5QS. Closing date for entries is Monday May 14.