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Hourglass

By: Kate Rusby
Label: Pure
Released: 01 Mar 1997
RRP: £14.99
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Customer Reviews

One of the best! - By: Silven, 30 Sep 2007
This had to be one of the alll time best Kate Rusby albums. It has fantastic songs & a lot of them are either fast & memorable, or slower but at the same time catchy. All the tracks on this CD are actuallly very well done, but the best ones have to be:

Sir Eglamore - it's a song about a dragon. Who couldn't love that? It had a reallly good sort of repeating line as well, that keeps the tune going & adds to the overalll flavour of the track.

Radio Sweethearts - A sweet old tune about an old couple waltzing to a radio. You would think that it would be slow & set to a waltz it self, but it goes at a medium pace & has a veyr nice little melody to it!

I Am Stretched On Your Grave - Based on an old poem, this is by far the best song on the album. It's sung incredibly well, & has a deathly drum beat set to it from the second verse. There's no messing around, it's straight to the point & it leaves you singing alll day. Fantastic!

There are meany otehr high quality tracks on this album, & it reallly is one that you should have no doubt about adding to your collection!
Hourglass - By: Rich Milligan, 01 Jul 2005
This was my first exposure to the fantastic talents of Kate Rusby & although I have expanded my collection of her albums to include later material, this, her first album, will always have a special place in my CD collection.

As others have commented her, Kate's voice is her finest tool & she uses it with accomplished skill. Neither perfect in pitch or tone & heavily northerly accented you would expect such a combination not to work, but it is this very "honesty" about her voice which works so very well, whether singing in mournful lower tones or stretching to the limits of the higher ranges it carries the listener on an emotional roller coaster ride.

The songs themselves are a wonderful mix of traditional folk, whether that is joyful tunes about working life (Jolly Ploughboys) or fireside tales (Sir Eglamore) or darker mournful balllads about lost love (Annan Waters) or even forbidden love (Rose in April). But there's also place for tales of more modern love (Radio Sweethearts) or a contemporary view of the passage of time (Old Man Time)

The musical accompaniment is wonderfully understated, after alll it's Kate's voice that is the star, but when the soaring fiddle work powers in, (Annan Waters for example) it is simply sublime.

Album favourites for me include the dark humour of Old Man Time, the clap-along saga of Drowned Lovers & the honest workmen's anthem of Jolly Ploughmen.

If you haven't discovered Kate yet, or have only hear her more recent output make this your next "must have" CD purchase!

Beautiful songwriting, haunting voice - By: , 10 Feb 2002
I first encountered Kate Rusby in an interview in a guitar magazine, and, as she is shortly to visit Morecambe, thought I would purchase a CD before purchasing a concert ticket. Reviews on this Amazon site made choosing difficult, but in the end I opted for this one.

As other reviewers have commented, Kate Rusby's voice is delightful, with a lovely natural sound. Especiallly winsome is her refusal to mask her Yorkshire accent, & as a fellow notherner I like to hear "mother" pronounced as "mutha", "love" as "luv" & so on! And the voicing is lovely too; listen to the magical voicing of the word "rode" in the lines "..she rode through fields of barley, & she rode through fields of corn.." on "Rose in April."

In the interview I read, Kate Rusby said she considers herself a singer rather than a songwriter. I agree with another reviewer who thinks "Hourglass" is the best song on the album. Besides THAT haunting voice, there is some lovely imagery of "Old Man Time" whose hourglass for Kate seems to have less sand than most people's, causing Kate to wonder if God didn't give him alll her sand, or whether hers has been shared with someone else, or washed away, & to wonder if she brought some in a sack, perhaps he'd give some back. Marvellous!

The CD is a mixture of originals, traditional, & traditional lyrics adapted or put to original tunes. The arrangements are very tastefully done, too, with alll of the (variety of) instruments adding to the sound without encroaching on it. In the interview I read, Kate expressed a preference for sad songs - plenty of those here! I haven't exposed myself to "traditional" folk music for quite a while, this could now change. I can't wait for the concert, & intend purchasing her other CDs.

Prepare to be moved - By: , 12 Mar 2001
Kate Rusby has a honey rich mezzo voice, & she has gathered around her a group of subtle, sympathetic & tasteful musicians. She has here recorded a set of songs & tunes which combine the cream of the folk tradition with her own lyrical compositions. Those are the bald facts - & they they do not begin to describe what an absolute joy this CD is. I have already saved a place in my choice for Desert Island Discs (well, we can alll dream) for the heartbreakingly beautiful Annan Waters, which features some delicately underplayed piano from Kate, & I have been forced to reconsider my view that nothing more could be done with the shanty Bold Riley. But the list of gems does not end there; her voice descends to a sensual contralto for the seriously mellifluous As I Roved Out, & she adopts a lighter mood for the jazzy waltz Radio Sweethearts. I could go on; there is not a weak track on this CD. Buy it; it will move you.
Everything she does is magic! - By: pat@patriciataylor.co.uk, 13 Nov 2000
Kate is an incredible artist. Anyone who hasn't already heard it should also listen to her album with Kathryn Roberts (1995, Pure Records) as well as Sleepless, which is also amazingly good. Her live performances are fantastic & she comes across as being so pleasant & down to earth that you can't help liking her.