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and a fresh batch of twenty-somethings climbing the festival bills, perhaps Jackie Oates can finally stop being seen as a newcomer.
“That’s hard to adjust to but brilliant. I do feel very proud and very fortunate that I’ve turned this from a passion into a way of life. And so much has changed, but how incredible that this career withstands all the ups and downs of life.”
It’s all the more remarkable since the desire to be a singer arrived long before Jackie had the confidence to do anything about it. “I always had this fantasy that I was going to be a female singer, but I’d only ever sing in my room or in the car. I had this cas- sette recorder and I’d record myself singing or I’d ask my mum to go on these drives through Cannock Chase and we’d listen to Kate Rusby and Kathryn Roberts. We’d go to see quite a lot of gigs in Stafford, and I just got into this fantasy where it was me on the stage. I never ever believed it would be real because I was so shy. I wanted to be Kate Rusby and I think that’s quite obvious!”
They’ve been through so many line-up changes that people may not realise or remember that one of Jackie Oates’ earliest pro- fessional engagements was as an original member of The Unthanks, or Rachel Unthank & The Winterset as they were then known. Along with pianist Belinda O’Hooley, Jackie helped shape their distinctive arrangements of traditional songs.
“I
ended up being in The Winterset because I’d been in the BBC Young Folk Award finals in Newcastle and Rachel came to see the concert. I was in my final year at university when I got a text from Rachel saying, ‘Would you be interested in putting some viola on my album?’ So that summer I travelled backwards and forwards to Barnsley to record parts for Cruel Sister. In the autumn of 2004 I was also very slowly making my own album with Phil Beer, and Becky and Rachel were playing gigs as a duo. But I’d come on as a special guest and I’d play three songs and then I’d leave them to it. So it all evolved in quite a slow way.”
“It felt very exciting to be shaping the sound of the group. There was something about the effect of Belinda’s piano playing with the sisters’ harmonies, and I’d been classically trained as a viola player but I’d never thought about mixing the two styles of playing before. That sound evolved from all these rehearsals we’d do in Rachel’s kitchen. I’m really proud of what we did.”
Belinda and Jackie revisited that chemistry on her 2013 album
Lullabies, a record that combines those same elements of light and darkness.
“With Belinda it’s all spontaneous. She doesn’t really ever write parts when she plays with me, it just comes about according to the mood or the ambience and you just have to capture her magic. The concept of Lullabies was that it was a winter album and we wanted it to sound very natural and atmospheric. Most of the tracks were done in one take.”
I have a theory that Jackie is at her best when she completely trusts her accompanist. It’s there when she performs with Belinda and it was there at Sidmouth with Jack Rutter on guitar and bouzouki duties.
“Yes. Absolutely. I think it’s fair to say there are certain ele- ments of performing that I find incredibly beautiful and relaxing, where I feel more like me than I do the rest of the time, but there are other elements where I’m quite tense and anxious so having the right musicians is wonderful.”
“There’s so much that’s right about Jack. His sense of timing and rhythm is spot on and he’s very innovative as well. But he’s got a real beauty about his playing and he understands the tradition very deeply. He’s just such a sunny character; you can’t help but like him.”
Jackie’s next venture is as artist in residence at the Museum of English Rural Life in Reading (a museum with one of the most entertaining accounts on Twitter). And before that?
“I’m going on tour with a five-week-old baby next week, so
that’s a whole different life.”
eccrecords.co.uk/jackie-oates
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