Folk singer Kathryn Williams to perform in Cambridge

Folk singer-songwriter Kathryn Williams released her 15th studio album, Mystery Park, on 26 September – a deeply personal collection of songs that marks 27 years of making music.

Known for her delicate voice and poetic songwriting, Williams, who is set to come to Cambridge next week, rose to prominence in 2000 with Little Black Numbers, a self-released album that earned her a Mercury Prize nomination.

In the years since, Kathryn has written a novel (The Ormering Tide), hosted a podcast (Before the Light Goes Out), worked as a visual artist, collaborated with a number of other musicians, including John Martyn, Paul Weller and Ed Harcourt, and released a Christmas album, Midnight Chorus, with Dame Carol Ann Duffy.

Her 2024 album, Willson Williams, was Americana Award-nominated and received critical praise.

Kathryn says of Mystery Park: “This is the most personal record I’ve made. The artwork is my own painting, based on the willow pattern from my grandmother’s tea sets.

“Each part of it ties into the songs – a map of memories.”

Track three on the album, Gossamer Wings, is a collaboration with Paul Weller.

“My eagerness to show him I was diligent made me barge on ahead without him on this one,” explains Kathryn, “but we pulled it together and I calmed the heck down for the second sitting.

“This was based on the title that Paul had and an idea of spirits breaking free from the constraints.”

The fifth track, This Mystery, offers one of the album’s most arresting metaphors – a record shattered in the road becomes a symbol for Kathryn’s father’s dementia.

“Memory being unplayable in the form that it was in,” she says. “But this is a song for him, not the disease.

“Anyone who has had a loved one diagnosed with this cruelty will know how you just want to paint their skies blue and make everything all right.”

Throughout Mystery Park, there’s a sense that we are being welcomed into a private, shifting landscape where time folds, memory flickers, and the interior world is given centre stage.

“This record is for anyone who’s felt something and kept it quiet,” says Kathryn. “For those private echoes, I hope these songs give people space to hear their own.”

Kathryn Williams will be at Cambridge Junction (J2) on Monday, 6 October. Tickets, priced £19.50, are available at junction.co.uk. Visit kathrynwilliams.co.uk for more.