Don't wait for permission, with Kathryn Tickell, Laura Cannell, Amy Thatcher and Ruth Lyon

Music Life

British folk musicians Kathryn Tickell, Laura Cannell, Amy Thatcher and Ruth Lyon discuss their musical and personal identities, the music they made when they were younger, and whether or not place affects the music they create.

Kathryn Tickell is from the North Tyne Valley of Northumberland and comes from a musical family of pipers, singers, fiddlers and accordion players. She took up the Northumbrian small pipes at the age of nine, and began learning tunes from old shepherd friends and family. Her work has evolved to traverse jazz, and music from around the world, to large-scale orchestral works. She has released 15 of her own albums to date, and has recorded and performed with Evelyn Glennie, the London Sinfonietta, Sting, and many others. In 2015 she was awarded an OBE for services to folk music.

Laura Cannell is a composer and violinist whose music straddles the worlds of experimental, folk, chamber and medieval music. She came to prominence with her debut album, Quick Sparrows over the Black Earth, and is known for her compositions that draw on the emotional influences of landscapes, and explore the spaces between ancient and experimental music. She’s also the founder of independent record label Brawl Records, and is curator of the Modern Ritual performance series.

Amy Thatcher is one of the UK’s leading folk accordionists, who’s based in the North East of England. Her first album, Paper Bird, was recorded when she was just 16 years old, and she released her first album proper, Solo, in 2019. She’s worked with the likes of the Royal Northern Sinfonia and Sting.

Ruth Lyon is a folk and chamber-pop artist who has established herself as a key member of the music scene in Newcastle, UK. She grew up in the countryside of the North York Moors, inheriting a love of the outdoors as well as a sense of melancholy from the landscape, something that is instilled in the music she creates. Her most recent EP, Direct Debit to Vogue, showcases her soulful vocals and her witty, raw lyricism, expressing the power in fragility and the beauty in imperfection.