“Utterly brilliant…one of my favourite voices in contemporary music” – Guy Garvey British singer-songwriter Katherine Priddy is to release her much-anticipated sophomore album The Pendulum Swing on February 16 2024 via Cooking Vinyl. This follows her highly acclaimed 2021 debut The Eternal Rocks Beneath, which announced Priddy as a singular new talent on the contemporary roots music scene.
As a taster for the album, first single “First House On The Left” is out now.
Speaking about the single and the wider themes on the album Priddy commented: “Despite its soft and dreamy sound, this song provides the cornerstone around which the album and its themes orbit. It’s inspired by the little old house where I grew up and all the memories captured within those four walls – both for me and for all the other inhabitants who’ve lived there over the centuries. It might just be another terraced cottage to passersby, but to those who’ve called it home, it’s everything.
The album title The Pendulum Swing is taken from a line in this song and describes the urge to leave and the even stronger urge to return – something I’ve felt a lot in recent few years as I’ve tried to carve out a corner for myself elsewhere, but always found myself wandering back, craving the comfort and nostalgia of the past.
It also sums up this second album as a whole quite nicely – my songs have matured since my debut, seeing as most of those were written in my childhood, but despite moving forward and feeling the need to do something different with this second release, I still can't help but return to those fundamental, unchanging things at the root of it all: home, family, love.
Overall, I wanted this song and the album to feel lived in, and this is captured in part by the ghostly atmospheres, mechanical clockwork sounds, creaking floorboards, indistinct whispers and old tape recordings of my family that are littered throughout. I want to invite the listener to come in, sit down and inhabit the album for a little while, and this song is right at the heart of that.”
Since Richard Thompson chose Priddy as “The Best Thing I’ve Heard All Year” in Mojo Magazine on the strength of her 2018 “Wolf” EP, her star has risen exponentially. Winning fans from Guy Garvey, Mark Radcliffe, Stuart Maconie and the late Janice Long and garnering glowing press reviews across the board for The Eternal Rocks Beneath including The Observer, The Sun, Uncut, Songlines, Folk Radio UK and more, Priddy crossed genres, charting at number 1 in The Official UK Folk Chart and number 5 in the Official UK Americana Chart, and rounded off 2021 on Mojo’s Folk Albums of the Year list.
She is in demand as a performer and collaborator, playing Cambridge Folk Festival (where she won the prestigious Christian Raphael Prize), Glastonbury (where she appeared on the coveted BBC2 TV coverage), Green Man, End Of The Road, Beautiful Days and the BBC Proms. As well as sell out headline tours, Priddy has been chosen to support world class artists including Richard Thompson, The Chieftains, Loudon Wainwright III and Vashti Bunyan.
In 2022, she took her music worldwide with a series of shows in Australia, including a performance at Port Fairy Folk Festival, plus a showcase in Kansas City USA as part of Folk Alliance International. 2023 saw no sign of her momentum slowing; highlights included a new single on Chrysalis Records as part of a Double LP of Nick Drake covers from artists such as Self Esteem, Aldous Harding, John Grant, Bombay Bicycle Club and more, as well as a show supporting Guy Garvey at The Roundhouse.
Now, 2024 will see the release of what must be one of the most eagerly awaited second albums by any artist: The Pendulum Swing. Once again recorded in Birmingham by producer Simon J Weaver, guest musicians comprise John Smith (lead guitar), Harry Fausing Smith (strings), Marcus Hamblett (brass/double bass), George Boomsma (guitar, backing vocals, co-writer on track “Ready To Go”), Polly Virr (cello) and even a brief appearance from Priddy’s family members right at the end of the album, in keeping with its themes. With The Pendulum Swing, Priddy has managed to keep moving forward whilst acknowledging and honouring all that has gone before.