Jackie Oates

Jackie Oates

Jackie Oates is an English folk singer and fiddle player from Congleton, Cheshire, born in 1983. She grows up in Staffordshire and later studies English literature at Exeter University. She is based in Devon until 2011, when she moves to Oxford.

Career

Alongside her solo work, Oates performs in the folk trio Wistman's Wood and sings with Morris Offspring. She is also part of Rachel Unthank & the Winterset between 2003 and 2007, and is listed as a member of The Imagined Village, Jackie Oates & John Spiers and The Petrels.

Awards and recognition

Oates is a finalist in the BBC Radio 2 Young Folk Award in 2003. She is nominated for the Horizon Award in 2008 and wins it in 2009, along with the award for best traditional track for her recording of “The Lark in the Morning”. She is also later nominated as Best Newcomer in the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards.

Recordings

Her album The Violet Hour appears in early 2008 and marks the start of a successful period in her career. It receives strong national reviews and is included in Mojo’s top ten folk albums of the year for 2008. She is then signed to One Little Indian Records for Hyperboreans, an album produced by her brother Jim Moray and featuring a title track written for her by Alasdair Roberts. The album includes traditional songs such as “The Pleasant Month Of May” and “Young Leonard”, plus her version of “Past Caring” based on a poem by Australian writer Henry Lawson, a cover of “Birthday” by The Sugarcubes, and “May The Kindness” by Devon songwriter Dave Wood.