Jackie Oates 'A voice that is at once traditional and modern' Q

biog

Winner of two BBC Folk Awards 2009 – The Horizon Award for best new comer & Best Traditional Track Award
Top 10 on the Mojo album of the year chart 2008

Jackie Oates is a singer and fiddle player hailing from Staffordshire. Her unique treatment of English ballads and songs, and pure, haunting singing style has attracted increasing attention.

Since appearing as a finalist in the BBC Radio 2 Young Folk Awards 2003, she has performed extensively at festivals and folk clubs across the country, in a solo capacity and with a number of bands. She was a founder member of Northumbrian group and Mercury nominated Rachel Unthank and the Winterset until early 2007.

Her decision to leave the Mercury-nominated Rachel Unthank & The Winterset to pursue a solo career looked like a brave decision at the time but has proved to be inspired.  Jackie was soon after nominated for as best newcomer in the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards.  A swathe of glowing national reviews came with the release of ‘The Violet Hour’ (CR Records) soon after, with the album going on to be one of Mojo’s top ten folk albums of the year in 2008.  The new year saw Jackie walking away with a remarkable two BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards including the Horizon Award for best newcomer, the award which had alluded her the year before.  Jackie Oates, solo artist, had arrived.

Newly signed to One Little Indian Records, on September 7^th 2009 Jackie released the highly anticipated follow-up to ‘The Violet Hour’ in the UK.

‘Hyperboreans’ was produced by her brother Jim Moray and featuring a title track written for her by Alasdair Roberts.  Her uniquely beautiful vocal came to the fore throughout the album adding a new freshness to her sound.

The first single from the album, a cover of the tantalisingly weird song ‘Birthday’ by The Sugarcubes, garnered a splash of mainstream radio play including repeated plays on John Kennedy’s X-Posure on XFM, daytime play on Cerys Matthews 6Music show and late night Radio 2 play on Steve Lamacq’s show.

The release of Hyperboreans in the UK was followed by Jackie’s first national tour of England in October/November 2009 with support from Arts Council England.  The album was then released in Europe, Japan and Australia in November 2009.

The end of 2009 saw Hyperboreans receive a nomination for the fRoots Critics’ Poll Album of the Year and reach number 5 on the Mojo Folk Album of the Year Chart.  Nominations for the 2010 Folk Awards were announced on December 2^nd 2009 with  Jackie Oates has receiving three nominations for Folk Singer of The Year, Album of the Year and Best Traditional Track for ‘Isle Of France’.

In 2010 Jackie performed at SXSW in Austin Texas, and guested with The Imagined Village as well as performing on main stages at some of the most important folk festivals in the UK including Cambridge Folk Festival.   She was soon asked to become a permanent member of the all-star fusion band Imagined Village along side Eliza Carthy, Chris Wood, Simon Emmerson, Martin Carthy and more.

Early in 2011 she was invited to take part in the Cecil Sharp Project, a song writing house project initiates by Shrewsbury Folk Festival and supported by EFDSS which brought together English and Appalachian musicians for an intensive week of song writing in a house in Shropshire followed by three concerts and the recording of a live album which went on to receive a 5 star review and Top Of The World rating from Songlines magazine.

The same year Lush, the nationwide chain of 700 stores selling handmade soaps and cosmetics, launched a ‘colour supplement’ – a moisturiser tint for the pale skinned – in the name ‘Jackie Oates’ and tagged ‘for traditional folk’.

On 12th September 2011 Jackie Oates releases her fourth studio album titled ‘Saturnine’.