Kathryn Williams
We are delighted to welcome singer-songwriter Kathryn Williams back to Port Eliot for the second year. This Mercury Prize-nominated singer-songwriter – much loved for beautifully performed, passionate and melodic music – is just about to release her eighth album, The Quickening… and we can’t wait to hear it down by the river again this summer.
The Quickening, her first release for One Little Indian, was recorded quickly with a crack team of deliberately underprepared musicians. It features songs to match any in her back catalogue, such as the loping opener ’50 White Lines’, an elegant road anthem featuring a countdown in the “low Welsh voice” of recording engineer (and local legend) David Wrench.
Kathryn’s first major live performance was a Nick Drake tribute concert at the Barbican in 2000, and her delicate, intense, finely-crafted songs certainly follow in this tradition. Other influences include Nina Simone, Joni Mitchell, Bob Dylan, John Lennon, Simon And Garfunkel and Velvet Underground. Her catchy folk-pop sound belies her love of Americana, which she’s happy to own up to: ‘‘That’s more what I grew up with than the English tradition. I was listening to Dylan and Joni Mitchell… But I also love The Velvets and grungy New York stuff. The things that influence you aren’t necessarily gonna come out in obvious ways, unless you’re trying to copy. I don’t sound like Lou Reed or Tom Waits. But when I listen to them, I learn.”
Kathryn has collaborated with John Martyn, Badmarsh and Shri, Thea Gilmore, Tobias Froberg and Ted Barnes, and most of the songs on her latest album, Two (2008), were co-written with Neill Maccoll. The album sees Kathryn playing guitars, mellotron, Hammond organ and harmonium.
She’ll be performing in the Caught By The River area.
www.kathrynwilliams.net
Join Kathryn Williams’ Facebook page
>> Click HERE to listen to Kathryn Williams’ single, ‘Wanting and Waiting’.
>> Right-click on the link above to download a *FREE* mp3 of the song to your computer
“The music is richer than ever… just lovely.”
Time Out
“Williams’ voice is a thing of hushed and delicate beauty”
The Guardian
Links:
- Video interview with Kathryn Williams from BBC Liverpool 08
- Interview on Folk Radio
Video:
Kathryn Williams – ‘Hollow’:
