Katherine Priddy | The Acoustic Guitar Podcast Sessions

Catch up with folk singer-songwriter Katherine Priddy in this bonus Acoustic Guitar Sessions episode. We talk family, guitars, touring with Richard Thompson, and enjoy a performance of “Father of Two” from her latest album The Pendulum Swing.

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Transcript

Nick Grizzle: 0:00

Welcome to the Acoustic Guitar Podcast. I'm your host, nick Grizzle, for this bonus Acoustic Guitar Sessions mini-sode, I'm joined by Katherine Priddy singer-songwriter from Birmingham, england. Our episode begins with Priddy performing the song Father of Two from her new record, the Pendulum Swing.

Katherine Priddy: 0:34

How fortunate to be A fruit now grown, Once was sown From a different tree. How you nursed me from the ground. How far we've come from that small drum beat on an ultra sound Arms that stay the same Even as the seasons change. The first to ever hold me and the last to let me down. Eyes wide open, Father, my oldest friend born of love if not by blood. A word without an end. My beginning.

Katherine Priddy: 2:01

Spinning years fall like dust in my memories. Years fall like dust in my memories. Time has a trick of slipping through your fingers, lingers on in moments hung suspended on the wall. I know there were times when tides were low. It's good to know that eight strong legs trod water through it all. Eyes that stay the same, even as our faces change. All the years you cared for me and now I'll care for you. Father, my oldest friend Born of love if not by blood. A world without an end. That began at my beginning. Spinning years Fall like dust in my memories. Years fall like dust in my memories. Years fall like dust and my memories. Years fall like dust and my memories. Years burn like gold and my and my memories, Father of two, this one's for you.

Nick Grizzle: 4:45

So you said you wrote that for your father's birthday. What was his reaction when he first heard it?

Katherine Priddy: 4:51

He was very moved. I actually wrote it during lockdown when we couldn't really do anything else to celebrate. I'd moved back in with my parents during lockdown and my dad's not very well he hasn't been well for a few years so we were kind of properly like shielding during that time. So there wasn't really anything we could do to celebrate his birthday. So I thought a song, a song would suffice. So I wrote that for him. But when I put it out on the album I found a little cassette tape of me and him chatting to each other when I was about two and a half or three and I included a little clip from that cassette right at the start of the song on the record, which he didn't know about. So that was a little, a little emotional easter egg for him as well.

Nick Grizzle: 5:34

Yeah, there's a lot of little sound pieces on the record. Are they all like special snippets? What was the goal with including those on the album?

Katherine Priddy: 5:52

I think I've always really enjoyed all those little sounds on records. I really like it when you can hear those little details. Personally, and for me because the album there's a theme of home and family running throughout it. Not all the songs, but quite a lot of the songs are kind of there's a song about the house where I grew up and there's a song about where I wanted to live and about different family members and stuff, because it's just been something I've been kind of, I guess, thinking about quite a lot of the last few years.

Katherine Priddy: 6:18

I've been trying to work out what home is for me and where I want to go. So I felt on the album it would be fun to try and make the whole thing feel a bit like an old, old house and make the whole thing feel a bit lived in um and kind of bring in some of that nostalgia and stuff that I feel when I sing the songs and try and um immerse the the listener in that sort of world as well. So it's just kind of creaky floorboards and and footsteps and and stuff like that throughout, because I think I just really like those details in in recordings. It makes it yeah, it just makes you feel a bit more immersive for me do you think um?

Nick Grizzle: 6:52

you know, moving back home during the pandemic kind of had a hand in in creating that theme throughout the album definitely.

Katherine Priddy: 7:00

Yeah, I mean it was. It was something that I'd been thinking about for a while because I'd I'd done quite a lot of moving around and sofa surfing and trying to work out where I wanted to be and what just kind of what I wanted to do, I think. But definitely during lockdown, um, suddenly finding myself at home with my parents again, I think as a as an adult, there's almost a sense of shame and feel like I feel like you've gone backwards, um, so I've spent a lot of the time feeling quite frustrated with myself but also not knowing how to move forward and kind of feeling guilty for actually enjoying being at home and spending that time with my family. So that's where the title of the album came from as well. The Pendulum Swing is that kind of wanting to go forwards and move on but not being able to resist the pull back all the time. It's that constant to-ing and fro-ing. So, yeah, I definitely think Lockdown had a hand in that theme.

Nick Grizzle: 7:56

You know the album is really lushly orchestrated. What are your arrangements like when you play live?

Katherine Priddy: 8:01

So I tend to either. I do sometimes play solo because I wrote all the songs on my own with my guitar, so I try and use my guitar to harmonise with my voice a lot of the time, which I think just happens naturally when you're writing solo. But sometimes when I perform live, I perform with another amazing guitarist called George Bomesmer and he uses an electric guitar to create some nice atmospheric stuff underneath and he does some harmonies. I quite like to leave space in my live performances. I don't like it to feel too kind of being forced onto people. I like it to feel quite kind of pulled back and leave a lot of space. But yeah, using his electric guitar just gives it that little lift. And I'm going to be touring this album in May and I'm going to be using a third person. The guy that does the strings on the album is going to be joining me as well, so that'll be really nice you know, Nick Grizzle: speaking of playing live, you toured with Richard Thompson a couple times in 2019, 2021.

Nick Grizzle: 9:01

I mean, how did that come about and what was that tour like for you?

Katherine Priddy: 9:05

It was pretty magical because I grew up listening to his music I mean, my dad's a big fan and my mom loves Fairport Convention and it came about quite strangely because I released a little EP back in 2000, I want to say it's 2018, called Wolf, and it was just four songs. I kind of put it out just to see what happened. Didn't really expect all that much to come from it. Then someone sent me a clipping from mojo magazine, um, because richard thompson had listed it as his favorite thing, best thing he'd heard all year in mojo magazine. And I've, no, I still don't know, because I didn't have the guts to ask him. I still don't know how he got his hands on the ep, um, but he liked it.

Katherine Priddy: 9:45

So then, uh, contacted him and I said, well, if you want, put your money where your mouth is, richard, get me on tour with you. Uh, but no, and he did twice and he's lovely, you know, I think it's a big testament to him as a, as a person, because he could have anyone supporting him, because he's such a hero. But it was really nice that he picked a nobody like me. And, um, yeah, the tours were. Tours were great. He's a real gent.

Nick Grizzle: 10:08

So did you get to um play on stage with him at all?

Katherine Priddy: 10:12

no, I didn't. I just sat in the wings um adoring him from afar mostly not bad.

Nick Grizzle: 10:18

Not a bad seat, not bad not a bad seat to have?

Katherine Priddy: 10:21

um, no, but he was. He was honestly such a nice guy and I think when you're playing date after date with someone, but every time you watch him it's just yeah, I never got bored of hearing him play and he's such a raconteur on stage as well. He's got great stories, so, yeah, he's brilliant.

Nick Grizzle: 10:39

What got you started playing acoustic guitar, like what drew you to this instrument in particular.

Katherine Priddy: 10:45

I think it was partly circumstance because my dad had a battered old Yamaha acoustic guitar that he used to leave kind of within reach and so I just started picking it up and having go on it myself and I was quite small, it was a big old jumbo acoustic guitar so I just used to lie it on my lap and kind of play it like that and I actually taught myself the wrong way up. I started playing it left-handed for a little while before I realised I was playing it upside down. So I think it was partly just because it was there that I started, because I also played clarinet and stuff when I was younger.

Katherine Priddy: 11:18

I've always liked playing music, but I think there was always music on in the house and there was a lot of folk guitar and stuff um on the stereo. So I think that that really encouraged me as well and I taught myself from a little Irish, irish um songbook. So I kind of taught myself like the finger picking from that, which I really, really enjoyed and I think I think guitar also is a nice one because you don't, you know, clarinet was great and I really enjoyed being in, you know, the school orchestra and all that sort of thing. You don't often get clarinets lying around houses that you can go and pick up and play, but there's often often a guitar in a corner that you can go and have a go on. So that's that appealed as well.

Nick Grizzle: 11:57

Had more access to guitars what's uh, what was on the turntable growing up?

Katherine Priddy: 12:02

All sorts of things. So there was, like I said, there was, quite a lot of folk. There was Nick Drake, john Renbourn, planxty, so kind of that side of things, steeleye sp an, a lot of Joni Mitchell, but also a lot of Frank Zappa and Black Sabbath and a lot of rock and metal as well, which I really enjoyed. But I think I loved Tool and stuff.

Nick Grizzle: 12:26

I still love a lot of rock and a lot of metal the prog metal band Tool.

Katherine Priddy: 12:28

Yeah, I'm still a big fan of them, but I think I've just always enjoyed any music that has that tells a bit of a story and has a bit of substance to it. And I think that's why I like things like Frank Zappa as well, because the music's one thing, but his lyrics are hysterical a lot of the time and there's there's lots of layers to the music. So I don't think I'm necessarily. Yeah, I'm quite pleased that that there were so many different genres um playing, because I think there's so much more to music than just the kind of initial sound of it. There's a there's a lot to be, to be learned from different different styles do you um?

Nick Grizzle: 12:59

what alternate tunings do you like to use?

Katherine Priddy: 13:02

I. I'm not a huge detuner I don't know if that's a phrase and again, that partly stems from a fear of mine of strings snapping on stage when I'm playing solo, but I like Dadgad, which I know is a classic, and there's a couple of songs that I've written in Dadgad. I think I do want to start trying some more open tunings. I saw a really great clip of Joni Mitchell the other day saying how she never understands how people can say that they're not feeling inspired or they don't know what to play, because she was like just put your guitar in another tuning and you've got a whole new kind of plethora of melodies to find. So I think I do want to start. I need to get over my fear of string snapping and, um, I just need to get more guitars maybe and put them all in different tunings

Nick Grizzle: 13:49

You know, that will cure a lot of things.

Katherine Priddy: 13:51

I've heard yeah, yeah, I think that could be the motivation I need. Nick Grizzle: speaking of uh getting guitars, what, uh, what guitars do you play?

Katherine Priddy: 13:59

I've got. I've got a Martin guitar um, which was actually the first one I had, and I still really like that guitar um, but now I mainly play on this beautiful. It's called a McLaren. It's Sam McLaren. He's a luthier based up in the northeast of England and he made this guitar for me, um, although it's part of his p16 series, which are like a performance series of guitar um, and they're really really gorgeous. They've got the nice lr baggs pick up in them, um, and it just feels like a good body size for me, um, I'm just, yeah, big, big, big fan, but he also makes a lot of gorgeous classical guitars and things for anyone in that area should check out sam mclaren.

Nick Grizzle: 14:39

He's brilliant oh yeah, I mean, how'd you get uh connected uh with the mclaren guitar? Guitar, that's a beautiful instrument.

Katherine Priddy: 14:46

So I found out about him because I was up in Yorkshire and he does live sessions from his workshop up there and I'd admired them on social media for quite a long time. So he invited me to his workshop to record a song or two on them and I played this P-16. I just fell in love with it, completely fell in love with it. So I said I would like one, and he has made me one. So, yeah, it was a bit of a chance meeting, but I think it's really nice to support guys like that. I mean, he's my age, he's a young guy and he makes one guitar at a time. They're proper labors of love.

Katherine Priddy: 15:31

Um, and he said, did I want anything kind of fancy doing to it? Or I didn't really want anything that was too showy or too kind of it's a custom guitar sort of thing. So I said no, but, um, unbeknownst to me, he put in right inside the body, um, so that only I can see it. When I look down there's a little mother of pearl, moon and star just inside the body, kind of glinting away, which was really really sweet of him, because I yeah, I didn't, I wasn't expecting him to do anything, um, but it's that sort of thing that you'll never get from from like those bigger I don't know I'm a big fan of supporting, supporting guys like that who've spent years and years working on their craft.

Katherine Priddy: 16:01

Um, and he's yeah, he's a he's a really nice person. So, yeah, very happy to have one yeah, what do you like?

Nick Grizzle: 16:08

um about playing your specific guitar?

Katherine Priddy: 16:12

I think for me, like I said, I think the body size on this one is perfect. Um, I've always played dreadnought guitars before and I'm quite a small person, I'm quite short, and I find having the slightly smaller bodied guitar fits really well on stage. Which might not sound like a particularly important thing, but when you're playing something all the time, um, you want it to feel comfortable and it's just it, the actual size of the guitar. It's got a lovely sleek neck. I really like how narrow the headstock is as well. The whole thing just feels quite petite, um, which, yeah, which suits me.

Katherine Priddy: 16:46

I've always been quite tempted by a parlor guitar, actually for the same reason, just having this quite a nice small, small guitar, um, but yeah, and then performance wise, the pickup, the LR bags, um, anthem pickup works really well for me. I've always been able to get quite a nice sound on stage without it being too boomy, which which is something I sometimes struggled with With my Martin. It could be a little bit hard to tame in that respect, whereas I find this one a lot easier to get a good live sound.

Nick Grizzle: 17:15

To hear more from Katherine Priddy, be sure to check out the show notes for this episode. She's currently touring the UK and hopes to make it over to the States soon. If you're enjoying the Acoustic Guitar Podcast, please head over to our Patreon page at patreoncom slash acoustic guitar plus. This is a listener funded show, and your pledge of one or five or nine dollars a month helps us continue to produce new episodes. Plus, you'll get instant access to a whole bunch of great perks like exclusive live stream workshops, song transcriptions and guitar lessons. If you aren't able to make a contribution at this time, we understand. Another way you can support the show without spending any money is to leave a five-star rating along with a review on Apple Podcasts. This really does help with discoverability, and the more guitarists who tune in each month, the better. Thanks again for listening and for your support of the Acoustic Guitar Podcast.