QUIET CUPPA FOR NEW STAR

THE 2000 Mercury Music Prize nominations have made an unexpected star of quietly spoken singer/ songwriter KATHRYN WILLIAMS.

Her second self-financed album, the fragile Little Black Numbers, faces stiff competition from the likes of Coldplay, Leftfield and Richard Ashcroft for the prestigious annual award, but the 25 year old musician is trying desperately not to dwell on the odds.
"I am really excited," she chuckles. "But I'm not going to think about it too much as there's probably no chance that I'll win and I can't think that way as I'd probably get really down if I didn't get it."
Like its predecessor, the critically acclaimed Dog Leap Stairs, Little Black Numbers is a beautiful collection of songs that has earned comparisons to Nick Drake, early Suzanne Vega and Beth Orton.
Understandably, Williams has been the centre of much major label attention, but she is keen to keep control of her career.
"I was getting loads and loads of interest from record companies," she says.
"And they kept saying 'write a few more songs like that other song you wrote.' They didn't seem to understand anything about music or writing music and I wanted to do it myself for that reason more than any other.
"If I'd have signed to a major label I would've got a lot more money and probably had a much easier life as bills came through the door, but it's worth not signing so you can do what you want."
With an EP currently planned, she's much in demand by other artists including guitarist Bert Jansch and legendary blues/ folk musician John Martyn.
"I was the support to the support to John at the Jazz Café in London," she says of their first meeting.
"I was talking to him and asking if he was nervous. He said 'yeh', so I told him that he should be naff like me so he could go on first and drink later on," she laughs.
"We got on quite well. His manager was saying that there were loads of people up for collaborating on his album, and he said it was between me, Beth Orton and someone else. A bit later he came back to me and asked me to do it.
"I sang on two songs on Glasgow Walker - kind of like backing vocals, but on my contract one of them was called a collaboration, which I was very pleased with."
Hailing from a very creative background, her father was a sixties folk singer whose bedtime songs inspired the young Kathryn.
"He used to come in to put me and my sister to bed, start singing and get us really excited. And then he'd just go 'Goodnight girls' and leave us all agitated. He's taught me not too take things too seriously.
"He's going to be at Ronnie Scott's and he's got a lovely voice, but I wouldn't want him to tour with me, he's too much of a party animal. I like my cup of tea and an early night."
Dave Freak, Go2Birmingham, July 2000