There was something indescribably vital about Kate Garrett. Her very existence was a challenge to embrace life. She would hold your gaze with an unswerving intensity, make you feel that, at that moment, you were the only other person in the world and dare you to meet her on her terms.
Born in Dorset in the final dimming days of 1971 she was a daughter of the English countryside, a product of its rhythms and cadences. Then, moving to Oxford in the early 90s, she put on her city skin and, like an urban fox, made it her home.
Having played in a duo as a teenager with Polly Harvey , her musical path took her through the alternative rock of The Mystics, the wayward acapella of Trio Hysteria and finally to The Kate Garrett Band where her own music finally took centre stage. On the way she made an indelible impression on those she gave her time to, especially through the Young Women's Music Project in Oxford.