KATE Rusby is one of folk music's glittering stars.

Her career has spanned more than 25 years and she's up there with the finest interpreters of traditional folk songs and one of the UK's most emotive original songwriters. Kate's beautiful, expressive vocals never fail to connect the emotional heart of a song to that of her audience and her wondrous singing and hugely engaging Yorkshire wit and the intuitive support of her band ensure that audiences will be treated to a terrific concert experience.

Kate will be back at Ulverston's Coronation Hall on Wednesday, October 9, as part of her tour promoting her popular new album Philosophers, Poets and Kings, and she says that the Lake District is a special place for her family: "We all try to come up together at least once a year and have a week filled with the most amazing walks, food, beer and company. It's just such an amazingly beautiful part of the world. The concert at Ulverston is one that we love doing and we are so grateful to have the opportunity to come back again.”

Performing much-loved classics from her back catalogue and fresh songs from her new recording, Kate will be joined on the Coro stage by some of the cream of British folk musicians: Damien O’Kane on guitar, electric tenor guitar and banjo; Steven Byrnes on bouzouki; Nick Cooke on diatonic accordion and Duncan Lyall on double bass and Moog.

So, what comes first when she's writing, the words or the melody?

"Usually the melody," explains Kate. "I’ll be sat late at night with my guitar or at the piano just messing about with chords and riffs and sometimes a tune for a song starts to form. If I can remember it the following day I’ll keep working on it. It’s all just nonsense words really at the start then the lyrics just kind of drop in there and then the story will start to build and on it goes."

Kate says that she had no idea what she wanted to do when she was growing up: "Everyone around me at school were choosing their GCSEs and I had no idea what to choose. I remember thinking: how do they all know what they want to be? I always think the music career chose me, not the other way round. We had been taught songs and had been singing since we could talk, musical instruments were all over our house and my parents played a lot but it never dawned on me to make it a career. A family friend was involved with a festival near here and heard me singing and playing, she asked me to do a little spot at the festival 27 years ago. I said yes but then thought what on earth did I agree to that for. I did the gig, and vowed I would never do it again 'cos I was so terrified; I was nearly sick and shook like mad. Someone from another festival came up at the end and asked if I would play at their festival. I said yes, and again I was thinking, shut up Kate stop agreeing to these things. It just went on like that and I looked back after a couple of years and thought, oh well I’ll give this a go for a bit and see where I end up. And here I am."

Apart from her parents, who both sing and play, Kate says the biggest influence on her music has been Nic Jones: "He's a total genius," adds Kate. "He's an incredible guitar player and when he sung it was as if he was just telling you about something that happened to a mate. My parents had all his albums and when I was tall enough to work their record player I would put on Nic’s albums and sit with my Dad’s massive 80s headphones and get lost in the world of stories he was telling. He had a bad car accident over 30 years ago and was in a coma for a long time. He could never play like he once did but he was recently back singing. In fact he came to sing on my album called 20. He joined me on a song called the Lark. When he started singing in the studio I couldn’t help but shed a good few tears. It was a dream come true moment and so amazing to hear him sing again."

Coro box office 01229-587140.