Album: Kate Rusby, Make The Light (Pure)

Unlike her previous albums, Make The Light features no traditional material, just songs Kate Rusby penned herself. The shadows of tradition and rusticity do still fall across some songs, most notably "The Wishing Wife", a cautionary tale set to springy accordion and banjo about a wife wishing her husband was smaller, kinder and cheerier, then waking up to find him transformed into a dog.

Elsewhere, "Only Hope" posits a Biblical apportioning of just desserts for the meek and mean-spirited, "Fair Weather Friend" offers a lovely paean to hope and forgiveness, and "Let Them Fly" presents Rusby's first protest song, a tilt at self-serving clergy and politicians. Throughout, the wistful nobility of her voice is sensitively supported by string-band arrangements, augmented here and there by string quartet and a small brass ensemble.

DOWNLOAD THIS The Wishing Wife; Fair Weather Friend; Walk The Road