Kate Rusby at The Liverpool Philharmonic Hall. December 2015. Photograph by Ian D. Hall.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

It could be said that the first true sign that Christmas has appeared over the streets of Liverpool is when Barnsley’s Kate Rusby steps out on stage at the Philharmonic Hall and proceeds to bequeath presents out in the shape of the finest local folk music and musical renditions of popular festive songs.

Like a warm and cosy duvet nestling just over the toes, the feeling of rich snugness fills the air of the Philharmonic Hall with the kind of supremacy that only Kate Rusby and her band of fine musicians and the beauty of a brass band can supply. Christmas it seems can officially begin as soon as the dedicated folk singer says so and as it has been two years since the sound of Yorkshire hit the auditorium, two years since the delicate sounds of Winter softness ploughed straight into the hearts of a Liverpool crowd, it may have felt that like The White Witch’s firm grip on Narnia, Winter may have arrived but there has been no Christmas, not without the sound of a tantalising voice to herald its beginning.

Along with Damien O’ Kane, Steven Iveson, Duncan Lyall, Aaron Jones and Nick Cooke, Ms. Rusby thrilled the Philharmonic crowd with songs from both her native Yorkshire but also the wilds and mystical Cornwall, the sound of Folk filling the air with substance and carefully laid joy.

The two part set, fuelled by Yorkshire tea, the thought of a kind of robust truth and the fragility that Time steals when local songs are forgotten, was started with songs such as Bradfield, Hark, Hark What News, Jack Frost and The Sunny Bank. With that kind of flourishing start, the evening progressed with abundance, the cackle of a roaring fire and the creative passion that Yorkshire can supply uppermost in the mind and perhaps the small hope of snow settling outside on the pavements surrounding the Philharmonic Hall as people filed out.

The snow may not have appeared but the music continued valiantly in the form of songs such as Kris Kringle, The Little Town Of Bethlehem, The Frost Is Over and a wonderful “manly” set by the band which contained the excellent instrumental Castle Rock Road.

Christmas can now begin, Kate Rusby has weaved her magic with music as pure as driven snow.

Ian D. Hall