Bio

Katus is the whistling wind of diversity and change coming from every direction, like lovely, beautiful folklore, in a spectrum of languages from Czech to Gaellic,her tales keep you entranced and her flute - singing ,the sound of inspired genius." For more songs and DVDs see [link="http://www.katus.cz"]www.katus.cz[/link] Interview with [link="http://www.radio.cz/en/article/86322"]BBC World Service-Radio Prague[/link] [link="http://www.subba-cultcha.com/article_album.php?id=3946"]Click here for ALBUM REVIEW [/link] “This is one of the most original and captivating records I’ve heard in a long time. Katus should be nurtured and encouraged to grow! She is an important and necessary compound for a genre so often overlooked and dismissed by today’s predominantly rock n roll environment! This is folk music with its creative spirit intact. A genuine and creative medium of story telling.” Alan Baille, Music News Scotland "If you're lucky enough to see Katus perform live, the first thing that'll melt is your heart, closely followed by your preconceptions. There's a fragility and delicacy about her physical presence that belies the strength of her music and the often powerful edge to her lyrics. This is no 'coffee-table' folk music. Katus's music leaves you at times feeling challenged, amused, disturbed and moved, but above all entertained. Katus imposes her artistic will on her songs in a way that blows away all cobwebs of predictability. The guitar work is particularly notable in this respect - Katus seems to create new styles of playing for each song based on what the song needs, not what has gone before. The result is a stunning series of arrangements matching the creativity and inspiration of the songs as a whole. The CD "SMILE", is a collection of highly unique and creative songs with catchy tunes, memorable lyrics and inventive guitar playing, but it's also capable of entertaining at a much deeper level which will reward anyone giving the CD the attention it deserves." Mally, Mad for Music Pronounced 'Kat-oosh' , this Welsh/Czech phenomenon pens her own songs in English, Czech, Gaellic and French, weaving rare folk gems in Bulgarian & Russian into her encyclopeadic set .This integration of Europe's ancient folk melodies with her own lived experience of the widely differing musical styles she finds, from the Caucasus to the McGillyCuddys Reeks, is what sets Katus apart and makes her voice so genuinely unique. This year Katus, performing with JB who uses a small drum miked through a delay pedal to create whackey off-beats, has headlined Solfest, the North's biggest festival, in the Lake District, Sazava Festival, Czech Rep, the Green Fields of Glastonbury, where she was made the official mascot by the Strummerville Stage who are using her song "Hey Hey" as their anthem as well as touring Croatia, Bosnia and Czech and performing at many smaller roots and eco festivals in the UK, as well as doing workshops for children. In 2006 Katus toured with Mercury Prize nominee Seth Lakeman, Czech Grammy winner Lenka Dusilova,The Levellers and The Stawbs, as well as playing many UK festivals , woo-ing audiences -leaving them hankering for more..... From when katus picked up a guitar in 2001,her itch for the road and expert cultivation of the magic of the off-beat gig, have seen her pop up at sessions with Nigel Kennedy and Donovan in the Tatry Mountains , playing concerts in remote Romanian orphanages and singing to a packed houses at the London Jazz Cafe and Glastonbury. A real Troubador, She has learned her craft on the road touring Ireland, France and Eastern Europe. Between 2002 and 2005 she played with multi-instrumentalist Tony Wrafter, and since early 2006 has been touring as a duo with percussionist JB the Whitfield G. Performing at such venues and events as The International Gypsy Guitar Festival,,Broadstairs Folk Festival, Big Green Gathering,Smallworld,N16 Fringe,The Troubador, ,Roisin Dubv Galway, Xianti Balkan Music Festival. She has guested many times on Resonance fm,as well as many regional radios,and her album has been aired on BBCRadio 2’s Andy Kershaw show.She was interviewed by the BBC Worldservice in Prague while on tour in December. Her playing has an East-European,Calypso/African feel and "her commanding, soulful voice with the breadth of her guitar playing merge into a fresh sounding musical genre uniquely her own." The Troubador. "Guitar players stare mesmerised by her fluid fingers, while she effortlessly plays rhythm, lead and bass line,creating her own full band sound, upon which her voice sails like a full vessel bound on a great adventure for the stars..."Festival Eye "I can't beleive you sing through the flute..Truly amazing!" John Howarth, Oldham Tinkers " Better than red stripe! Tales of love, fate & passion, culminating in a range of A-capella songs that staple you to your seat." N16Fringe,London. "She can sing. She can play. She's gorgeous. She'll make it!" Nigel Kennedy When asked how to describe Katus' music, Simon Friend,song-writer of UK band The Levellers,smiled, tilted his head,and said, "Her music is beautiful." "A mobile, self-generating, acousto-electric, time -travelling, singing-flute playing songwriter!" Hot-Press. Katus - modern-day troubadour with repertoire in eight languages [15-12-2006] By Rob Cameron Listen 16kb/s ~ 32kb/s In this week's edition of the Arts I'll be speaking to a modern-day troubadour - a half-Czech, half-English female troubadour, who sings in eight different languages and borrows inspiration from the folk traditions of countries as diverse as France, Bulgaria, Russia and Ireland. Her name's Katus. How important are your Czech roots to you? "They've completely made who I am. I left England when I was 18, and I didn't want to go university. I came to visit Czech with my mum and meet all my family for the first time, and I felt so at home and I felt like I could discover who I was here so I came to live in Prague. That was in 1993, and I lived in Prague for nearly a year and a half and learnt to speak Czech. I felt like I was at home here, which I'd never felt in Wales where I grew up. I left after a year and a half and I travelled all over the world but I kept coming back to Czech and my mum has always come back so at least once or twice a year I've come back." So would you now consider yourself half and half, or more Czech than English even? "I consider myself half and half, even though I'm actually only a quarter Czech by blood, I definitely feel more half and half, because after a few days here I kind of click into how I feel and the way I deal with people and I feel like I've been here forever." I know it's a question that most musicians dread, but how would you define your music? "It's all about the way I feel. I've not studied music. When I first came to Czech I was a painter. I never even considered myself a musician. I was here and I painted pictures for a year and a half. But I've always painted musicians, and I've always met them and I always actually earned my living from music. I was standing on Charles Bridge once or twice a week for a year and a half playing my piccolo, just making up little tunes. And that's how I survived in Prague for the time I lived here. I started playing guitar five years ago, and writing songs. The second song I wrote was a Czech song. I just sat down and it came, the chords and everything just came, and the words just came to me. It wasn't like I knew I could write a Czech song, because I didn't realise I could even write anything in Czech." Katus you're here in the Czech Republic with your percussionist J.B. and you're working on a sort of festival exchange. J.B. - can you tell me more about how that works? "Basically, I'm involved with a couple of festivals in the U.K., and we decided last year to bring some Czech artists over on a world stage, and for Katus to play, obviously, in the Czech Republic. We asked a few people, and put out a few feelers on the net. We decided to do it as a cultural exchange, and actually bring some of Katus's fans with us to a festival in Czech and take Lenka Dusilova from Czech back to the U.K. So Czech fans of Lenka's can experience festivals in England, and Katus's fans from England, or other artists' fans, could come and experience Czech festivals." .myspace.com/katusyoung email : [email protected] 27/1/07 The Holly Bush, Hay on Wye 21/3/07 Jabez Cleg, Manchester 22/3/07 The Golden Lion, Bristol 8/4/07 The Star , Glossop 14/4/07 Inn on the Green, London 17/4/07 The Tap and Spile, Hull 20/4/07 The Cambridge Folk Club 21/4/07 The New Clarence, Hull 24/4/07 Supporting the Levellers, 53 Degrees , Preston 5/5/07 Ragley Hall Green Fair 6/5/07 Ragley Hall Green Fair 12/5/07 Spiders Web, Grimsby 13/5/07 Lazareti , Dubrovnik Croatia 14/5/07 Caffe Marschall, Mostar Bosnia 15/5/07 Fis Club, Sarajevo Bosnia 16/5/07 Alter Art, Travnik Bosnia 18/5/07 Kult Cafe, Varazdin Croatia 19/5/07 Kult Cafe, Garesnica Croatia 24/5/07 Bristol Radio 24/5/07 The Golden Lion, Bristol 25/5/07 Hay-on-Wye Literary Festival 26/5/07 Clapham Common Festival 27/5/07 Smallworld Festival 28/5/07 Kingston Green Fair 31/5/07 Sunrise Festival 1/6/07 Sunrise Festival 8/6/07 Chotesov Monastry, CZech 9/6/07 Jazz Club ,Teplice, CZech 13/6/07 Vagon, Prague CZ 16/6/07 Zebra, Brussels Belgium 21/6/07 Tadpole Stage, Glastonbury 22/6/07 Smallworld Stage Glastonbury Joe Strummer Stage 23/6/07 Joe Strummer Stage Mandala Stage Glastonbury 24/6/07 Joe Strummer Stage Galstonbury 7/7/07 Skipton Folk Festival 14/7/07 Global Village Peace Gathering, Lincs 17/7/07 The Tap and Spile, Hull 5/8/07 Sazava Festival, Czech 11/8/07 The Holly Bush, Hay-on-Wye 19/8/07 Smallworld `festival, Lincs 23/8/07 The Woolpack, Cumbria 24/8/07 Solfest, Main Stage 25/8/07 Solfest, Drystone Stage 16/9/07 Treadwell's Gallery, Austria Czech tour December 2006 4/12 DOBESKA DIVADLO, PRAHA with Dusilova 6/12 ANDEL CAFÉ, PLZEN with Dusilova 8/12 JAZZ CLUB, TEPLICE 9/12 TVRZ, PERNOLEC 10/12 STARA PEKARNA, BRNO 11/12 DOBESKA DIVADLO PRAHA 12/12 CAFÉ EVZEN, OPAVA with Dusilova 13/12 PARNIK, OSTRAVA “ 14/12 STOLARNA, HAVIROV “ 15/12 STRAMBERK KULTURNI DUM SUMMER 2006 23/11 The Carlisle, Hastings 28/10 Ormskirk Comrades Club, OXJAM 21/10 The Salutation, Manchester 18/10 Revise, Chorlton 30/9 The Star, Glossop 23/9 Fairy Festival, Borrowdale 15/9 Lincoln Drill Hall with Seth Lakeman 7/9 The Stables, Milton Keynes, wiith Seth Lakeman 25/8 Solfest with Simon friend and Rory McCloed 24/8 The Woolpack, Rochdale, with Simon Friend 20/8 The Bimble Inn, Beautiful Days Festival 20/8 Floating Lotus Festival, Malvern Hills 19/8 Beautiful Days Festival 18/8 Northern Green Gathering, Yorks 12/8 The Strands, Cumbria 11/8 The Woolpack, Cumbria 3-5/8 Big Green Gathering 24//7 Cleethorpes Winter Gardens with Seth Lakeman 23/7 The Horse ~Shoe, Huddersfield 22/7 BOM Festival, Barnsley 19/7 The Anti-Sobriety-Variety Show, Bristol 16/7 Global Village Peace Gathering, Lincs 14/7 Latitude Festival 7/7 BOM, barnsley 24/6 Treadwell Festival, Austria 22/6 Bar1Twenty, Huddersfield 17/6 Sunrise Festival, Somerset 16/6 Darwen Library Theatre, with Seth Lakeman 10/6 Melton Mowbury Theatre, with Seth Lakeman 3/6 Floating Lotus, Malvern 20/5 The Grove, Leeds 19/5 Holmfirth Picture Palace, with The LEVELLERS 13/5 The Farm, Chapel St-Leonards 12/5 The Globe , Glossop 11/5 Bar1Twenty, Huddersfield 10/5 Revise, Chorlton 8/5 Holmfirth Picture Drome, with Seth Lakeman 7/5 Canvas, Holmforth Folk Festival 6/5 la Caveau, Holmfirth Folk Festival 5/5 Holmfirth Picture Palace with THE STRAWBS 22/4 SEPLE,Tyniste nad Orlici, Czech Rep, with Lenka Dusilove 21/4 Narodni Dum, Usti nad Laben,Czech Rep with Lenka Dusilova 7/4 The Contact Theatre, Manchester 17/3 the bulls head glossop 15/3 Revise, chorlton[color="indigo"][/color][color="indigo"][/color][link="URL"][/link][link="URL"][u][/u][/link][link="URL"][color="red"][/color][/link][color="indigo"][/color][link="URL"][color="red"][/color][link="URL"][color="red"][/color][color="red"][/color][color="red"][/color]