Since emerging with her debut EP, Wolf, in 2018, Katherine Priddy has quickly become one of the most exciting names on the British folk scene. Hailed as "the best thing I’ve heard all year’ by Richard Thompson - who later invited her to join him on both his Irish tour in 2019 and UK tour in 2021 - Priddy’s haunting vocals and distinctive finger-picking guitar style have seen her sell out a headline tour, support world class artists including The Chieftains, Loudon Wainwright III, John Smith and Vashti Bunyan.
Over the past two years, she has played well-earned spots at prestigious festivals in the UK and abroad such as Glastonbury (where she also performed live on BBC 2), Green Man, Cambridge Folk )where she was awarded the Christian Raphael Prize), End of the Road and Beautiful Days. During the pandemic, Priddy hosted a series of well-attended live-streamed concerts as well as taking part in online events such as Philadelphia Folk Festival, further expanding her international audience.
Her much anticipated debut album, The Eternal Rocks Beneath, was released in June 2021 on Navigator Records to great acclaim. The album singles received 200+ plays across national radio, including BBC Radio 6 Music and BBC Radio 2, whilst the album received a 5 star review in Songlines and 4 stars in The Observer, and reached no. 1 in the Official UK Folk Charts and no. 5 in the Americana charts. Folk Radio UK made Priddy their Artist of the Month, and said of the debut LP: “Foundations rarely come stronger than this. A debut of true substance, it’s like searching for a simple shelter and stumbling upon a diamond mine.” The album was later chosen as Album of the Week on RTE Radio 1 in Ireland, and made the list of Top 10 2021 Folk Albums in Mojo Magazine as national radio plays continued months after the release.
In 2022, Priddy's star continued on the ascent, with an invite to perform one of her songs as part of the world-renowned BBC Proms in the Royal Albert Hall, accompanied by the BBC Concert Orchestra. This followed her first in-person international performances, with a series of shows in Australia, including the Port Fairy Folk Festival, as well as showcasing in Kansas City, Missouri at Folk Alliance International.
Priddy's live performances are engaging, moving and amusing by turn, delivering original songs with emotional maturity, depth and a tenderness that still carries a darker edge. Her lyrics are particularly noteworthy - a tribute to her life-long love affair with literature and poetry - and the stories she weaves are transporting. It is clear that, despite the delicate nuances of her sound, Katherine Priddy is not a fragile wallflower, but a determined young woman ready to make her mark.