Last month, Kate Rusby announced her brand new album 30 : Happy Returns which celebrates her 30 years as a professional musician. As mentioned here, on the album, she is joined by a number of special guests including Ladysmith Black Mambazo, Richard Hawley, Darlingside, KT Tunstall, Sarah Jarosz, Sam Kelly, Dan Tyminski, Beth Nielsen Chapman and of course…Damien O’Kane.
Kate recently shared the accompanying video (see below) for the celebratory May themed song We Will Sing which opens the album and is featured on her 2014 album ‘Ghost‘. It’s a timely song, being one of Kate’s original Mayday songs whose lyrics chime with a sense of the renewal of the spring season.
On this fresh new take, she is joined by the South African vocal powerhouse Ladysmith Black Mambazo, a group she always imagined performing the song. Listening to the arrangements, especially the guitars and percussion, it does sound like the perfect match.
We are told that she’s still picking her jaw off the floor over the fact that the actual Ladysmith Black Mambazo actually said yes to singing it with her to open the actual album. The notes to the song add that “The South Africa/South Yorkshire collaboration reminds us that the world is full of such diverse folk and those folk can co-exist in glorious harmony.”
Kate is currently on tour, see details below and Ladysmith Black Mambazo also play their first UK tour for many years in October.
30 : Happy Returns tracklisting
- WE WILL SING @30 with Ladysmith Black Mambazo
- NO NAMES @30 with Richard Hawley
- FAIREST OF ALL YARROW @30
- CRUEL @30 with Darlingside
- LET ME BE @30 with KT Tunstall
- GHOST @30
- HIGH ON A HILL @30 with Sarah Jarosz
- BLOOMING HEATHER @30 with Sam Kelly
- ONLY DESIRE @30 with Dan Tyminski (new version)
- UNDERNEATH THE STARS @30
- WALK THE ROAD @30 with Beth Nielsen Chapman
- HUNTER MOON @30 with Damien O’Kane (new version)
Remixes from Philosophers, Poets & Kings PRCD53
- UNTIL MORNING with Damien O’Kane
- JENNY ORDINARY REMIX with Damien O’Kane
- AS THE LIGHTS GO OUT with Sam Kelly
Bonus Track (physical copy only) - SECRET KEEPER with Royal Northern Sinfonia (special full-length version)
Kate Rusby Tour Dates
Kate and her band will tour the UK in April and May with dates as follows:
6 April 2022 – Aberystwyth Arts Centre
7 April 2022 – Floral Pavilion, New Brighton
8 April 2022 – King George’s Hall, Blackburn
29 April 2022 – Bristol Folk Festival
5 May 2022 – Lavenham Church
6 May 2022 – Lavenham Church
7 May 2022 – Spinney Theatre, Northampton
8 May 2022 – Corn Exchange, Exeter
12 May 2022 – New Theatre, Peterborough
13 May 2022 – Cadogan Hall, London
14 May 2022 – Pavilion Theatre, Worthing
15 May 2022 – Anvil Arts, Basingstoke
19 May 2022 – Hippodrome, Darlington
20 May 2022 – Palace Theatre, Newark
21 May 2022 – The Apex, Bury St Edmunds
22 May 2022 – Alban Arena, St Albans
25 May 2022 – New Theatre Royal, Portsmouth
26 May 2022 – Hay Festival, Hay-on-Wye
27 May 2022 – Westlands, Yeovil
28 May 2022 – Hall for Cornwall, Truro
29 May 2022 – Queens Theatre, Barnstaple
Tickets: https://katerusby.com/