{"id":30866,"date":"2025-03-12T09:28:57","date_gmt":"2025-03-12T09:28:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.musicinleicester.co.uk\/index.php\/?p=30866"},"modified":"2025-03-12T10:02:15","modified_gmt":"2025-03-12T10:02:15","slug":"gig-review-katherine-priddy-at-the-y-theatre-friday-7th-march-2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.musicinleicester.co.uk\/index.php\/gig-review-katherine-priddy-at-the-y-theatre-friday-7th-march-2025\/","title":{"rendered":"Gig review – Katherine Priddy at The Y Theatre, Friday 7th March 2025"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n

with\u00a0Charlotte Carpenter<\/h2>\n

Reviewed by\u00a0Phil Taylor<\/a>\u00a0(see his Music Observer blog\u00a0here<\/a>)<\/p>\n

Katherine <\/a>Priddy<\/a> is a rare gem of a musician: able to stop you in your tracks with the powerful purity of her voice alone; able to capture in a few choice words the essence of a season, a memory, an intangible feeling just beyond reach; and able to cross boundaries, fusing elements of timeless folk music with modern themes, and broad influences.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m sure that\u2019s why Katherine has seen her music reaching ever further and wider. It\u2019s why more and more festival bookers, radio stations and journalists are keen to get to know her. And why Jools Holland invited her onto his BBC show at the end of 2024.<\/p>\n

Katherine\u2019s second album, The Pendulum Swing<\/em>, is now over a year old but she\u2019s still touring it at sold-out venues, mixing its songs \u2013 which tell of maturing and moving on and the \u201cpush and pull” of life \u2013 with older ones, and fresh material, too. (You can read more about the album, and Katherine\u2019s reflections on it, here<\/a>). On her current UK tour, Katherine has spent plenty of time in the East Midlands, stopping in Nottingham, Stamford and now, Leicester.<\/p>\n

Her choice of support artist was a great one: Charlotte Carpenter<\/a>, a local singer-songwriter who \u201ccreates poetic, intense, beautifully dramatic music and words; and she invests fully, putting her whole self into that art\u201d (read my full interview with her here<\/a> and MIL\u2019s review of one of her previous gigs here<\/a>).<\/p>\n

Charlotte performed a half-hour solo set, just her and her guitar, which meant she leant heavily on her vocals \u2013 nothing to worry about there. She always sounds sublime and is clearly fully committed and focused from start to end. She mentioned how the last time she performed at The Y Theatre (a great one, by the way) it was empty \u2013 she was using it for her lockdown live streams.<\/p>\n

Charlotte\u2019s two opening songs (Spinning Plates<\/em> and Fine Line<\/em>, from her most recent album) shared a similar chugging riff, overlaid with honest lyrics. The second of those songs gave a sense of growling intensity, with rising volumes, forceful and attitude-filled.<\/p>\n

She then moved into a section of \u201cdystopian\u201d or \u201capocalyptic\u201d songs \u2013 one of which was You’re My Reason Why<\/em>. If ever a song combined pain and love so precisely, it\u2019s this one: the theme is of a love so strong it could take you through the end of the world. Truly beautiful.<\/p>\n

Charlotte tested a new song with us, too: You look free and I\u2019m not<\/em> plays on what she described as her obsession with the character of \u201ca female robot coming to Earth\u201d.<\/p>\n

The rest of the set included the wonderful Dolores<\/em>, performed as a subtly toned-down version but no less beautiful and building to a wonderful energy; and the much more energetic Like A Hurricane<\/em> which took on a rock-and-roll, Americana vibe and was a good example of the other elements to Charlotte\u2019s music.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m glad Katherine Priddy picked Charlotte to open for her. Hopefully she will have gained plenty more fans after her performance which exuded her trademark quiet confidence, modest but grounded and outward-facing.<\/p>\n

I always enjoy a gig at a theatre venue for the novelty of ice cream during the interval (the Y has some great options) so I felt well set up for Katherine Priddy\u2019s set. She took to the stage along with George Boomsma, her long-time collaborator and a wonderful artist in his own right, and opened the set with Does She Hold You Like I Did<\/em>. It\u2019s a relatively pacey song and showed off Katherine\u2019s guitar-picking skills. It captivated the audience from the first note, and with the entry of her pinpoint vocals the atmosphere intensified. As the last resonant head-voice note died it was clear that we\u2019d all be hanging on every word tonight.<\/p>\n

This gig turned into the kind that\u2019s actually quite difficult to write up; the kind where you quickly run out of superlatives. I\u2019ve seen Katherine a few times before, and have never witnessed her falter. But tonight she seemed particularly relaxed and confident.<\/p>\n

Her set spanned and mixed up many parts of her comprehensive back catalogue. Her earlier material was sprinkled through the setlist. Songs such as Icarus<\/em> and Wolf<\/em> and, of course, Eurydice<\/em>, sounded full of light and sparkle, with chiming chords and pure, close-to-the-heart vocals.<\/p>\n

The more recent songs from her album came across as more developed and deeply personal. First House on the Left<\/em> was warm and relatable, telling a very human story of the relationships we can build with a physical home as it becomes infused with memories; Northern Sunrise<\/em>, despite being \u201cjust a little love song\u201d, combined trad-folk melodies and harmonies (courtesy of George) with remarkable subtly to create an embracing soundscape; Anyway, Always<\/em> was soaring and beautiful, flowing smoothly as silk; and Father of Two<\/em>, which Katherine prefaced with stories of her father, was incredibly moving.<\/p>\n

One section of this performance I had particularly been looking forward to featured two songs written with Poet Laureate Simon Armitage. Close Season<\/em> involved looking back to the frozen wastes of winter, and the opening sequence filled with dark foreboding was highly impactful, bringing the song alive even more effectively than the recorded version. The song was followed by its natural partner, Daybreaker<\/em> which has a great lyrical development, as the music builds, floating and widening to a natural and very rich climax.<\/p>\n

Closer to the end of the set, Letters From a Travelling Man<\/em> \u2013 which edged towards \u201cjaunty\u201d, as Katherine described it \u2013 allowed George to show his prowess on the guitar and made me long for a full band show where these songs could be expanded on more (this LDN Features session<\/a> shows some of the potential).<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve seen a trend recently where artists dispose, in different ways, with the typical encore routine and the pantomime of the false ending. Katherine did this, explaining warmly but firmly that she would be playing two more songs and that would be all \u2013 the right decision in this setting I think. Those two were the rich and mature Wolf<\/em> and Ready To Go<\/em>, which is also the closer to her second album. It\u2019s one she wrote jointly with George, sung in close harmony; it\u2019s one of those heart-tugging, gentle ballads which muse on life, the passage of time and fading light.<\/p>\n

This was a performance full of crystalline moments \u2013 gems stepping out of time \u2013 and also a truly shared experience. It was all about immersion in music and the auras of energy which surround that art form, collecting experiences and emotions with unfathomable magic.<\/p>\n

We were all grateful to Katherine for visiting Leicester and allowing us to share some very special moments together.<\/p>\n

If you would like to share this review, please help us by using the share buttons below instead of a screen print \u2013 thanks!<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This was a performance full of crystalline moments \u2013 gems stepping out of time \u2013 and also a truly shared experience.<\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":30868,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[346,216],"tags":[264,239],"class_list":["post-30866","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-346","category-gig_reviews","tag-acoustic-music","tag-folk-music"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.musicinleicester.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/final-grade-09.jpg?fit=1002%2C664&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p73uhX-81Q","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":16618,"url":"https:\/\/www.musicinleicester.co.uk\/index.php\/preview-paddy-veronica-at-the-rosebud-sunday-10th-february-2019\/","url_meta":{"origin":30866,"position":0},"title":"Preview – Paddy & Veronica at The Rosebud, Sunday 10th February 2019","author":"Kevin Gaughan","date":"08\/02\/2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Preview - Paddy & Veronica at The Rosebud, Sunday 10th February 2019","rel":"","context":"In "2019"","block_context":{"text":"2019","link":"https:\/\/www.musicinleicester.co.uk\/index.php\/Music\/2019\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.musicinleicester.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/51383410_776857932675208_6890287961343000576_n-1.jpg?fit=640%2C480&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.musicinleicester.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/51383410_776857932675208_6890287961343000576_n-1.jpg?fit=640%2C480&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.musicinleicester.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/51383410_776857932675208_6890287961343000576_n-1.jpg?fit=640%2C480&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":18223,"url":"https:\/\/www.musicinleicester.co.uk\/index.php\/preview-holy-moly-and-the-crackers-the-brandy-thieves-at-the-musician-wednesday-10th-april-2019\/","url_meta":{"origin":30866,"position":1},"title":"Preview – Holy Moly and the Crackers + The Brandy Thieves at The Musician, Wednesday 10th April 2019","author":"Kevin Gaughan","date":"04\/04\/2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Music in Leicester\u2019s Gig of the Month Organised by\u00a0Magic Teapot Sometimes Leicester gets treated to something special and this is it! Holy Moly and The Crackers are a band who are tipped for the top. 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