After learning to play the guitar, the fiddle, and the piano, as well as to sing, Rusby played at many local folk festivals as a child and adolescent. She came to wider attention through her duets with her friend and fellow Barnsley folk singer Kathryn Roberts on the 1995 album Kate Rusby & Kathryn Roberts.
At about this time she joined, and became the lead vocalist of, the all-female Celtic folk band The Poozies. This led to her becoming a founding member of the group Equation, which included Kathryn Roberts and Seth Lakeman. Rusby left Equation (being replaced by Cara Dillon) to follow a more traditional direction and, in 1997, released her debut solo album Hourglass produced by Scottish fiddler John McCusker (to whom Rusby was married for some time).
In 1999 Rusby recorded Sleepless which earned her a Mercury Music Prize nomination and the BBC Folk Award for Best Album and Best Folk Singer.
Rusby continues to release albums mixing traditional and self-penned songs on her own Pure Records, winning fans as diverse as Graham Coxon (who provided the illustration for her album The Girl Who Couldn't Fly) and collaborator Ronan Keating.
2008 saw the release of Sweet Bells, an album of traditional Christmas songs interpreted by Rusby.
In 2010, Rusby released the album Make the Light, a collection of self-penned songs, and in 2011 issued a second collection of Christmas songs titled While Mortals Sleep.
www.katerusby.com
I Wish
Kate Rusby Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
He gained my heart and liberty
He gained my heart and good free will
I must confessI love him still
I must confess I love him still
I wish, I wish, I wish in vain
I wish I was a maid again
For that young farmer lay with me.
There is a house in yonder town
Where my love goes and sits him down
He takes a strange girl on his knee
He tells her things he won't tell me
He tells her things he won't tell me
Chorus
There is a bird in yonder tree
Some say he's blind and cannot see
I wish it was the same with me
When first I met your company
When first I met your company
Chorus
I wish my little babe was born
And I poor girl was dead and gone
And then from love I will be free
With green grass growing over me
With green grass growing over me
Chorus
A bold young farmer courted me
He gained my heart and liberty
He gained my heart and good free will
I must confess I love him still
I must confess I love him still
Chorus
The lyrics of Kate Rusby's song "I Wish" tell the story of a young woman who fell in love with a farmer who won her heart and her freedom. However, there is a sense of regret and sadness in the lyrics as she wishes to be a virgin again, indicating that she has lost her innocence. The line "For that young farmer lay with me" suggests that she has already given herself to the farmer, and this knowledge seems to haunt her as it is not something that she can change.
The woman then sings about a house where her lover goes and sits with another girl, a stranger, in his lap. He tells her things that he won't tell the singer, and there is a sense of betrayal and hurt in this. She then talks about a bird in a tree who cannot see, and she wishes that she was also blind so that she could not see the hurtful things that her lover does. Finally, in the last verse, she expresses her desire to be free from love and to be dead, wishing for her baby to be born and the green grass to grow over her.
Overall, the theme of the song seems to be the pain of love and heartbreak. The singer is trapped in her love for the farmer, even though she knows that he does not treat her well. The chorus of the song, "I wish, I wish, I wish in vain, I wish I was a maid again" is a poignant reminder of the past that she can never regain.
Line by Line Meaning
A bold young farmer courted me
A brave man who worked on the land started a romantic relationship with me.
He gained my heart and liberty
He won my love and respect.
He gained my heart and good free will
He won my love and agreement to be with him voluntarily.
I must confess I love him still
I admit that I still have strong feelings for him.
I wish, I wish, I wish in vain
I long for something that can never be fulfilled.
I wish I was a maid again
I wish I could go back to being a virgin.
A maid again I ne'er shall be
I can never be a virgin again.
For that young farmer lay with me.
Because I slept with that farmer when we were together.
There is a house in yonder town
There is a particular house in a nearby town.
Where my love goes and sits him down
The farmer goes to that house and sits there.
He takes a strange girl on his knee
He flirts with and cuddles another girl he doesn't know.
He tells her things he won't tell me
He shares information with her that he refuses to tell me.
There is a bird in yonder tree
There is a bird sitting in a tree over there.
Some say he's blind and cannot see
Some people say that the bird is blind and lacks sight.
I wish it was the same with me
I wish I didn't have to witness my love's unfaithfulness.
When first I met your company
The first time I joined your group of friends.
I wish my little babe was born
I want my baby to be born and alive already.
And I poor girl was dead and gone
And I wish I was dead and buried already.
And then from love I will be free
Then I will be free from love because I am no longer alive to feel it.
With green grass growing over me
With grass growing over my grave.
Chorus
Refrain that repeats throughout the song.
Contributed by Asher G. Suggest a correction in the comments below.