Two of the UK’s most acclaimed recording artists Kathryn Williams and Polly Paulusma are coming together for an incredible night of music as their Big Sky tour heads to Newport’s Le Pub.
The pair, known primarily for their individual projects, met while on a song writing retreat. They have since written songs together and tutored song writing courses at Arvon Foundation.
Their friendship developed and strengthened, supporting each other over lockdown. Fans of each other’s work, it seemed a foregone conclusion that they would get on the road at some point.
Finally, after many years of talking about their tour dreams, Kathryn and Polly have pulled together a beautiful intimate month-long tour up and down the country, both playing headline solo sets, while coming together for a few songs.
Kathryn is a Liverpool-born, Mercury Music Prize nominated singer-songwriter with 16 albums under her belt. Prior to her latest release, Night Drives, the label OLI celebrated her career with a 20 CD two book box set anthology strewn with her art.
Kathryn has written a novel “The Ormering Tide” which debuted to critical acclaim and was listed in The Bookseller as a bestseller for the north and she hosts her own popular podcast “Before the light goes out” which was put in the top ten best music podcasts by The Guardian.
Polly Paulusma’s debut, Scissors In My Pocket received international critical acclaim upon its 2004 release by One Little Independent. She toured the USA, supported Bob Dylan, Jamie Cullum, Divine Comedy and Marianne Faithfull and played Glastonbury.
In 2012, Polly founded Wild Sound, now an OLI folk imprint, and signed nine artists. She completed her PhD in 2020, and recently, her ninth and tenth albums The Pivot Upon Which the World Turns (2022) and its sister When Violent Hot Pitch Words Hurt (2023) were recently released to critical acclaim; she is now working on a collaboration with double bassist Jon Thorne exploring relationships between song and prose.
Audiences will get two concerts for one from Kathryn and Polly when the pair play Newport’s Le Pub on Thursday October 12.