Steve Peck writes: Still in the early stages of her career, Katherine Priddy’s trajectory seems boundless. Part one of this overview traces how she burst onto the folk scene in full bloom.
For those in the know, the name Katherine Priddy usually elicits plenty of ooohhs, ahhhs, and sighs, a reaction she’s been drawing since launching herself on the UK folk scene in 2018.
Priddy is one of the few artists, especially at such a young age, whose mastery of song is so striking. The clarity of her work – her pristine voice, the poetic grace of her lyrics, timeless melodies, and evocative production – distills into a luminous, sensory experience that envelops the listener.
Now, in October 2025, she’s on the verge of releasing her third album and is already pushing the boundaries of her artistic palette.
Photo: Mike Ainscoe
Born in Birmingham in the mid-1990s, Priddy grew up immersed in her two great passions of music and literature, a symbiotic fusion that wove its way even through her earliest work. An early prodigy, she reached the finals in the 2011–12 talent contest NextBRITthing, showcasing young musicians aged 11 to 19.
While at secondary school, she performed locally and circulated a series of homemade EPs entitled The Old Tree Sessions. One track, a stunning cover of Bert Jansch’s classic Fresh as a Sweet Sunday Morning, is available on YouTube.
After spending time pursuing a degree in literature at the University of Sussex, Priddy devoted herself full-time to a career in music. In 2018, she released Wolf, her first official EP, and unbeknownst to her, acquired an influential fan.
That fan was Richard Thompson, who famously described Priddy as “the best thing I’ve heard all year” and subsequently took her on tour in both 2019 and 2021.
He told MOJO:
“She has a really pretty, expressive voice, and her songs are engaging – borderline poetry in the lyrics, so it isn’t all revealed at once. I love the echoes of the British tradition, and indeed the folk-rock tradition.”
While his description hits it right on the head, there is more. From the very beginning, I was struck by her extraordinary gift for melody, both vivid and resonant.
I first heard Priddy in the fall of 2021, a few months after the release of her first full-length album, The Eternal Rocks Beneath.
It was one of those seismic moments, reshaping my musical landscape forever.
Photo: Katherine Priddy Facebook
For a debut, it was remarkable. Priddy delivered on all fronts, and it’s extraordinary that she wrote some of the best material as a teen.
The Eternal Rocks Beneath possesses a cinematic quality. A song like Eurydice builds like a gull ascending towards the open sea. The chorus, as vast as the horizon, unfolds as she soars out over the rolling waves. The instrumentation, like a prevailing wind, helps carry her toward the sun. As dusk falls, she returns to the tranquil shore as the song fades.
Another song drawing on Greek mythology is Icarus, where Priddy lays bare a tale of a reckless, self-destructive lover forever flying too close to the sun. In the past five years, I can’t think of a song I’ve loved – or played – more.
Its melody moves through breathtaking twists and turns, illuminated by her incandescent voice. Stripped of the album’s sympathetic production, Icarus loses none of its emotional impact.
Up-tempo numbers Letters from a Traveling Man and Wolf provide lively contrast to Priddy’s stirring balladry. The former is sprightly, driven by engaging mandolin, while the latter feels more prickly, befitting lyrics like these:
My love, he chases midnight over heath and over heather
Overthrows the starlight as he hails a stormy weather
Eyes are like two pools of ink, into which I seem to drown
Why is it I love him when his only pleasure’s pulling me back down?
In the wake of such a strong debut, Priddy continued to tour and perform on the festival circuit. She also dropped two singles, one a duet with John Smith on a cover of the McGarrigles’ Talk to Me of Mendocino, the other her contribution to The Endless Coloured Ways: The Songs of Nick Drake tribute record.
On I Think They’re Leaving Me Behind, Priddy expands Drake’s delicate home recording into a sweeping production—sacrificing some of its fragility for full-blown grandeur.
Was it a sign of things to come? Part two of this series brings Katherine Priddy’s story up to date.
Photo: Katherine Priddy Facebook
Steve Peck also writes at his Facebook music blog Hickory Notes.
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