Barnsley born and bread, Kathryn Roberts has made a name for herself in the folk scene, both across the UK and overseas. In her early adventures, Roberts toured the UK, Europe and extensively through the US in folk supergroup, Equation.
In her more recent journey, she has found a partner, both in life and music – Sean Lakeman – and together they have toured regularly and released five successful folk albums.
“I grew up being taken to folk festivals. I remember falling asleep under pub tables listening to rooms full of people singing, so it has been a part of my life forever. But I think what really appeals to me is their stories. I like stories and pretty much every traditional song is telling some kind of a story. They tend to be less about broken hearts and relationships and love and more about telling a good story, whether it’s a kind of a situation, a working situation, or myths and legends. I love getting into all of those. They just interest me.”
Kathryn’s folk life has been somewhat movie-like – cosy pubs and huddled-up singers playing to small, but captivated audiences. In fact, we talked a little about the new, sensational Bob Dylan biopic, and how that has inserted itself into a crowd of new-found folk lovers today.
“It really opened our daughter’s eyes to the fact that actually, yeah, although we might all seem quite uncool to him, the music’s really great. The music speaks for itself. You go through phases of your life where you want music that you can dance to, you want music that kind of reflects what you’re going through, a particular period of life.”
It was interesting to gain a perspective of a folk singer’s outlook on the movie as, of course, they have more knowledge on the subject.
In and amongst her home life and seeing movies, Kathryn and Sean are preparing for their next tour. Having toured the world over for decades, Kathryn’s relationship with the dynamics of playing live has evolved.
“It is different just in the fact that I’m older, I’ve done it for longer and I’ve had a wider range of experience. So when we used to tour in America, I was in my early 20s and I had bags of energy and we could do that thing where we drive for 10 hours, do a gig, drive for another 10 hours, do a gig, repeatedly. We did used to drive such a lot. But that’s the way you get to see something and you experience being somewhere properly. We got to visit so many bits of America that we wouldn’t have gone to as tourists. You wouldn’t necessarily visit those areas and that was brilliant. So I loved doing that. But it was intense. We’d go for three months at a time basically non-stop.”
It was an exciting time for Kathryn. Mojo magazine wrote of Equation: “Their hard-earned grasp of folk, blues and jazz is wedded to a mainstream sensibility”. But a lot of the joy for Kathryn nowadays stems from the opportunity she has to do it all with Sean.
“Sean and I go out on the road and, because we’re married and we’re also best friends and we work together, it’s really nice. It’s just a nice experience. We manage to kind of potter around the UK and visit some really lovely places and get to play music and we get to hang out together. I know working with your partner is not for everybody, but it really works for us. That’s part of why I enjoy going on tours. It’s a shared experience.”
A few memories from her days in the US stick out to Kathryn.
“I tend to find every gig we do has got something amazing about it and it could be a tiny little thing. One that really stuck in my mind was playing in Los Angeles, right downtown, in this kind of big plaza surrounded by skyscrapers. We live down on Dartmoor, which is very rural and it’s very quiet and really calm and just suddenly being in this completely different environment was quite mind-blowing but I loved it.
“But then, equally, we’ve played tiny little places in the UK. I remember playing once in this village over a hill and it was all misty with lights shining and we were told afterwards to be careful of the wild boar. Just those completely different experiences. They’re brilliant. And it doesn’t matter whether you’re playing to a thousand people or ten somewhere. There’s still something to be gained from it. You’re still trying really hard to make a connection and give people a nice evening.”
Kathryn certainly has a great appreciation for both large-scale gigs with high production values and the intimacy and adventure that comes with a small independent venue.
“Oh it’s everything. It’s a really different experience to be in a room with other people quite up close and personal.”
The grassroots ideology aligns a lot with the folk scene’s values – and Kathryn’s outlook too.
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Words by Niamh Robinson, @niamhsjournall
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