From Social Worker To SINGING SENSATION

Kath has combined helping vulnerable her passions for folk music and people to lead an inspiring life

Since strumming her first guitar at 16, Kath Reade has been a prolific singer-songwriter performing in folk clubs across the UK. Now at 75, her heart-touching songs are winning fans spanning the generations.

Her impressive musical journey has run parallel with her outstanding career as a social worker and public sector leader in poverty-stricken communities in London, Manchester and Lancashire.

Kath has intertwined the two parts of her life, writing gritty songs about resilient characters and her emotionally raw experiences on the front line.

Kath reflects, "Nothing has ever stopped me from singing and playing my guitar. It is the core of me. I must play and sing.

"Music has been my friend and support throughout my life. When I have an that moves me, I experience will write a song about it." 

She has written more than 100 songs spanning seven decades and released nine albums including Inheritance in 2022, Where the Good Hearts Dwell and Let Your Heart Sing in 2015 and Devotion To Song (2013).

Kath now lives in Burnley, Lancashire with husband Paul, a retired IT professional, folk singer and hiking enthusiast. They will soon celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary.

Son Shaun (42), runs an IT company, a counselling practice and is a trained pianist who plays on his mother's albums.

Kath's childhood was not easy, and music was her saving grace, as she explains.

"Fate had me brought up by a family of dark-haired Londoners. There was I, incongruously in their midst, the freckled Kathleen with blue eyes and corkscrew auburn ringlets, joyously singing and dancing to their delight. Born to tell stories and sing songs."