Kate Rusby
Philosophers, Poets and Kings
Pure Records
★★★★

PAYING tribute to her musical heritage and family upbringing in Yorkshire, Kate Rusby’s 17th studio album is a combination of traditional songs, covers and her own compositions which reflect   different musical memories, among them singing with her parents and attending folk festivals at an early age.

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But it's Rusby’s own compositions that give this album its special quality. The Wanderer is about a man in her village suffering from Alzheimer’s and the final track Halt the Wagons commemorates the 180th anniversary of the Huskar Pit disaster,  where 26 children working in the mine lost their lives.