I Just Love Her: Kate Rusby
This week, I’m doing a little vocal profile of one of my favourite voices of all time. There are tonnes of singers who I’m so impressed by, who can do incredible things, but I think it’s so special to find someone whose voice you just love. Kate Rusby. Kate Rusby takes me places, man. She was introduced to me the same way many wonderful artists were introduced to me, throughout my adolescence. It was a Saturday evening; my Mum was on a night shift, my brother upstairs on his Playstation and my Dad was in and out of the kitchen, working on whatever ‘experiment’ he was going to present to us tomorrow for dinner (which was always a resounding success, by the way). All of a sudden, my Dad comes over to me – interrupting my programme – “come on, you’ve got to listen to this”.
Obviously, as an eleven year old, I just thought it was super cool that I finally knew a song that had my name in the title. But we would listen to that album (Underneath The Stars) together, over and over again for the next nine years, and it feels like her music and that voice is just a part of me now.
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To watch her sing*, it’s clear there’s no vanity about her. She doesn’t perform in the way we’re used to seeing singers perform. I think you can hear that in her voice as well. It’s not embellished – it’s just beautiful. In the best way possible, it’s low effort singing. If you told me she’s never had a voice lesson in her life, I would believe you and that is not a bad thing, because she’s blessed with such a gorgeous tone. If she does have lessons and coaching, she’s done an incredible job at presenting her voice as humbly and naturally as she does. She might have the nature of folk music on her side, but I think it’s really rare to come across singers who sound like they’re telling you a story and it’s no different from whether they’re singing it to their family at the dining table, or on a stage in front of thousands. She doesn’t seem to have a ‘vocal persona’ and it just works. Even though it’s seemingly low effort, it sounds magical.
Because she has a relatively high speaking voice, she’s got the luxury of maintaining speech quality higher up. I think that’s how she can sound so lithe and musical and like a cosy hug, all at the same time. When you think of someone having a warm tone, they usually sit quite low, so it sounds extra special and kind of other-worldly to get such an intimate sound at a much higher pitch than we’re used to. I’m only really reminded that Kate is singing when she slips into head voice – and even that happens so seamlessly, because her ‘normal’ voice is right on the edge of that, anyway.
Due to the pitch of her speaking voice, she can afford to use certain vowels, higher up, that most of us wouldn’t dare attempt. If I tried to sing ‘oo’s and ‘oh’s in the same places, no way would they come out as lovely and as rich as they do from her. Usually, there’s a lot of adjusting that needs to happen to make certain notes sound and feel supported. Another singer might need to lift their larynx, put on some twang and use a sharper vowel sound like ‘aah’ or ‘eh’ to make the vocal tract shorter (so that less air needs to be used, as well as encouraging more forward placement) to end up with a sound as free as Kate’s. Saying that, as free as it might be, it would still sound totally different. Kate Rusby is another example of a singer whose anatomy is integral to the type of vocal they produce.
It’s because of her anatomy being on her side which means that a characteristic I usually reeeeeally dislike in other singers, is potentially my favourite of hers. I’m going to try not to go off on one here and save it for a future blog post, but I’m super duper not a fan of British singers who let. you. know. they are British. I think a little sprinkle of an accent is fine here and there, but only if it works (for me, it usually doesn’t work, but you can read all about that in a few months, probably). Because of everything discussed thus far, Kate Rusby can be as lovely and as Yorkshire as she likes and it sounds glorious. I’m not sure a tenor from Yorkshire could be rounding out their vowels as easily as she does. Even then, I do get the sense she’s aware of her accent and knows how to utilise it. I think Yorkshire accents can sometimes sound a bit bendy, as they work to connect consonants together. I have noticed that Kate is a very vowel-ey singer – she’s super legato and almost just hints at consonants. This takes away some of that bendiness and results in much softer, cleaner transitions between words. As legato as she is, she’ll occasionally break it up with some glottal onsets and offsets in the middle of a phrase – something that we just don’t hear very often and feels like a splash of humility in what is, otherwise, a very dreamy and ethereal vocal.
So, what can we learn from Kate Rusby by emulating her style? Well … nothing. Because you can’t. Jokinnnngggg. As discouraging as it is to know we might not be physically built to make certain sounds as easily as Kate Rusby, it’s quite comforting to know that we are all different and there will always be something special about your voice. You just have to work out what it is and learn how to work it as well as she does (are we body positivity blogging rn?!). As cheesy as it sounds, a lot of what makes Kate Rusby so wonderful is that she is true to herself. It’s really refreshing to hear a voice that’s so beautiful, and so un-self-aware, all at the same time.
*I’ve not yet had the pleasure of seeing her live – I was hoping this year would finally be the year I catch her Christmas show at Union Chapel, but you know why that’s not happening … and now I’ve just checked when next year’s is, but I can’t go to that either because one of the shows I was supposed to see this year has been rescheduled to that date. 2022 – I’m coming for you, Kate.