Cate Clifford

Cate Clifford began her folk life as a child enamored with traditional Irish tunes. That love carried her to Ireland for a semester abroad in 2009, then to Rhode Island in 2016, where she embraced the social singing tradition and its community with both arms. She quickly became a fixture at her local pub sings and a gleeful attendee of annual festivals and camps across New England, including the Old Songs Festival, New England Folk Festival Association (NEFFA), Portsmouth Maritime Folk Festival (PMFF), Traditional Music and Dance Camp (TradMaD) at Pinewoods Camp, and Youth Traditional Song Weekend (YTS). Today, her repertoire teems with a wide range of traditional and trad-adjacent songs across styles and regions, from Appalachian to English, children’s rhymes to songs of the sea, ballads to protest songs.

Since she landed in Rhode Island, Cate has sung as a solo performer and with collaborators in homes and venues throughout the country. She has had the privilege of being a featured guest performer at the Old Songs Festival, the Folk Music Society of New York’s Virtual Spring Weekend, and festival showcases. Her sensitive harmonies are featured on a growing number of recordings. She co-leads a popular song circle of secular, atheist and agnostic hymns with Lynz Morahn. In August 2020, Cate received the 2020-21 Southern New England Apprenticeship Program (SNEAP) Grant from the Connecticut Museum of Culture and History, to study traditional ballads of the English-speaking world under the guidance of ballad singer Debra Cowan. In 2022, she was chosen to apprentice Alex Cumming in the songs and stories of folk song collector Olive Dame Campbell, through the John C. Campbell Folk School’s Traditional Craft Mentorship Program.

When she’s not singing, Cate collects songs about King Arthur and Robin Hood, love songs beyond the romantic or libidinous, and little songs (with Ben Gagliardi). She is proud to say that no set list is immune to a dash of Sondheim or a sprinkle of Shakespeare.