Salut! Folk (France/U.K.): Kathryn Ryan heads my old, new, borrowed and blue list

Colin Randall and friends on folk, folk-rock, and roots music, since 2007

Country music and folk have not always been the coziest of bedfellows.

The BBC tried hard in the 1960s to make it seem otherwise, with the Country Meets Folk radio show hosted by Jim Lloyd and Wally Whyton. It was intended to appeal to fans of the two genres but sometimes ended up displeasing both lots.

Irrational as it was, this schism persisted for years and I was an accomplice in the mutual animosity. You liked folk or country, not both.

West Wisconsin-raised. Colorado-based, Kathryn Ryan is not the first essentially country artist to turn my head. But her work is a glowing example of what finally shook me out of my own prejudice. With her confident vocals and thoughtful, unselfconsciously emotional lyrics, she tops my choice of recent listening for Salut! Folk’s “something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue” Christmas parcel.

Ryan’s debut album, eponymous, had been sat in my email box for weeks waiting to be heard. It’s now in the car and I can’t stop playing it.

From that album comes a single, Jesus Forgives, the message being “he may well do so but I ain’t Jesus”.

The song is immediately accessible with a striking chorus Ryan rightly says will sound familiar before the end of first hearing. Don’t take the official video too seriously; the murder and DIY burial of a rotten lover is a metaphor for being unashamedly unapologetic about, and unforgiving of, those who trespass upon her.

I love it but also admire so many of the other eight tracks addressing themes of love, despair, anger and revenge.

As well as having worked as a nurse, and shown some ability in quilt-making, Ryan is a classically trained cellist. On her album, she plays cello on Winter in Wisconsin, Coffee and Cologne and Michaelangelo and the classical influences unite seamlessly with the folk, country, Americana, a hint of the blues and – whisper it – pop elements. I believe and hope we will hear more of this young woman.

If that covers “something new“, what about “something old“. My wife would tell you I live in the past and it is true that Fairport, Steeleye and Pentangle are never too far from my musical thoughts, But I am going for humour, gritty northern humour at its best.

Full Article Here:

https://salutfolk.com/2025/12/22/kathryn-ryan-old-new-borrowed-and-blue/