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 Wonder What Is Keeping My True Love
Kate Rusby Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
I wonder what is keeping him out of my sight
I wonder if he knows of the pain I endure
And stays from me this night I'm not sure
Oh love are you coming your cause to advance
Or yet are you waiting for a far far better chance
Are you coming for to tell me you've a new love in store
For I can love lightly and I can love strong
I can love the old love till the new love comes on
I only said I loved you for to give your heart ease
And when I'm not with you I'll love whom I please
There's gold in my pocket and pain in my heart
For I can't love a man with too many sweethearts
You're my first and only false love but it's lately I knew
That the stronger I loved you the falser you grew
The spring grass grows the greenest and spring water runs clear
I'm sorry and tormented for the love of my dear
Your love it lies so lightly as the dew on the thorn
That's there in the evening and away with the dawn
In Kate Rusby's song "I Wonder What Is Keeping My True Love This Night," the singer wonders why her true love has not shown up. She is unsure if he knows of her pain and is staying away, or if something is preventing him from coming to her. She questions if he is coming to advance their love or if he is coming to break the news of a new lover. Despite her love for him, she acknowledges that she can love both softly and strongly and that she will love whom she pleases when he is not with her. The singer also reveals that she has gold in her pocket but pain in her heart because she cannot love a man with too many sweethearts, and that her love for her false love has grown stronger as he has grown more false. The singer feels sorry and tormented for still loving him as his love lies so lightly like dew on a thorn.
The song shows the singer's emotional turmoil and her struggle with unrequited love. She cannot help but love someone who she knows is false, and thus she is filled with pain and torment. It shows how love can be both beautiful and painful, and how it can be difficult to let go of someone who has a hold on your heart.
Line by Line Meaning
I wonder what is keeping my true love this night
I am uncertain what is causing my true love to be absent tonight
I wonder what is keeping him out of my sight
I am curious why he is not visible to me at this time
I wonder if he knows of the pain I endure
I ponder if he is aware of the agony that I experience
And stays from me this night I'm not sure
And I am unsure why he chooses to be away from me on this night
Oh love are you coming your cause to advance
Oh my beloved, are you arriving to progress your own agenda
Or yet are you waiting for a far far better chance
Or are you possibly waiting for a much more opportune moment
Are you coming for to tell me you've a new love in store
Are you planning to inform me that you have a new love interest
Or are you coming for to tell me you love me no more
Or are you arriving to express that you no longer have affection for me
For I can love lightly and I can love strong
Because I have the ability to love casually or with great intensity
I can love the old love till the new love comes on
I can continue to harbor affection for a former love until a new one appears
I only said I loved you for to give your heart ease
I only professed my love for you in order to alleviate any anxiety you may have felt
And when I'm not with you I'll love whom I please
And when we are apart I will adore whoever I so choose
There's gold in my pocket and pain in my heart
There is wealth in my possession but anguish dwelling in my heart
For I can't love a man with too many sweethearts
Because I cannot have feelings for a man who has too many admirers
You're my first and only false love but it's lately I knew
You are the first and sole love that has betrayed me, but it's only recently that I became aware of this
That the stronger I loved you the falser you grew
That the more intensely I loved you, the more deceitful you became
The spring grass grows the greenest and spring water runs clear
In the spring, the grass is lushest and the water is clearest
I'm sorry and tormented for the love of my dear
I feel regret and suffering due to my love for my beloved
Your love it lies so lightly as the dew on the thorn
Your love for me is as delicate as the dew resting on a thorn
That's there in the evening and away with the dawn
That is present at night and gone by morning
Contributed by Gavin W. Suggest a correction in the comments below.
zipporika
heartbreakingly beautiful...my mother and Irish aunts used to sing me this as well as its close relative, "Johnny's So Long at the Fair"....the song, and memories, bring tears to my eyes
soccerchamp0511
Her voice is absolutely melting, and when paired with the whistles, it's musical heaven! Also, this song is exactly how I'm feeling at the moment. Right on Kate.
jgwilson5
This music has a wonderful, timeless quality to it. Quite stunning actually!!
Charles Twombly
Kate, thank you once again. You get in the "inside" of a song and show us what it really means.
Adamfront
Thank you so much for all these wonderful posts, complete with lyrics. I've admired Kate's music for some time and now I can appreciate her full range. As for this song, well if anything better has ever been recorded I haven't heard it.
Margaret Lucas
This song is absolutely beautiful, and now I can't stop listening to Kate Rusby! 'Unquiet Grave' is gorgeous too ;)
folkseycelt
If there is a finer talent in English music than this lady I have yet to see or hear them. I have never heard her sing a bad song. Oh and she has a great sense of humour too.
pussy parry
johhny marr and morrisey
Rob Hoey
how wonderful to be blessed with such a voice
frank fedi
I was sooooo lucky to see her perform in Manhattan considering she is the girl who hates to fly. She is quite simply my favorite.