Little Sparrow / Tracey Browne

Event information

Little Sparrow

Little Sparrow is singer/songwriter Katie Ware.

Katie formed Little Sparrow in 2010, a title that came from Elbow front man Guy Garvey. He
affectionately called her 'Cockney Sparrow’ which lead onto her stage name ‘Little Sparrow'.
She performs regularly with a band of talented musicians that provide a mix of harmonies, strings,
guitars, pedal steel and percussion.

Drawing influences from the likes of Kate Bush, PJ Harvey and All About Eve, Little Sparrows music
creates songs that are filled with a blend of styles, woven into the colourful tapestry of her music,
often with a mysterious fairy tale quality.

The self release of her debut album 'Wishing Tree' in 2014 had tracks featured on BBC Radio 2,
BBC 6 Music, BBC Introducing Manchester, Merseyside & Devon along with regular regional
and international play.

2015 proved to be a great year with her playing Manchester International Festival, Liverpool
International Music Festival & Blackthorn Festival.

2016 saw Little Sparrow film a series of live videos with her band - using innovative, state of the art
360 degree technology, filmed at MediacityUK, dock10 studios, which can be found via YouTube.
Katie went on to play Kendal Calling Festival, Sidmouth Fringe Festival and Green Gathering.
Laurel Canyon Music website voted her ‘New Artist of The Year’ and 2017 started with her being
invited to play on BBC Breakfast TV.

2018 saw a gentle return to music after the birth of her son in 2016.

Little Sparrow released a 3 track EP called 'Just 3', a collaboration with pianist and composer
Robin Dewhurst (father to Josh Dewhurst from band Blossoms), and cellist Sarah Dale. Katie met
Robin at Kendal Calling in 2016, they performed at the Tim Peaks Diner and were asked to cover
'Baggy Trousers' by Madness by the Tim Peaks Team. This created a lovely new musical
relationship which went on to create 'Just 3’.

All three songs received airplay, Chris Hawkins from BBC 6Music played ‘Tender’ and ‘Baggy
Trousers’. Blue’s and Roots Radio of Canada made ‘Dry Your Eyes’ a ‘Daily Featured Artist’ track
for six weeks.

Katie played Liverpool Philharmonic in April, then Theatre Clwyd, Wales later in the year singing
alongside Bonnie Dobson and Elfin Bow. She sold out her return appearance in Manchester, her
home town, at The Bridgewater Hall in late November, with rave reviews.

2019 Katie released ‘Corner Of The Room’ a single which displayed a new musical direction for
her, certainly darker than previous works - with a video to match - and although the same glorious,
soaring voice that characterises all her songs is still there, it is in a more dramatic direction that
much of the new album is travelling.

2020 saw the release of ‘Tears’, a song originally written by her father Mick Ware.
Her father enjoyed a successful music career back in the 70’s and was a huge influence
on Katie’s songwriting when growing up. This included a home studio and recording with
her father regularly when only a little girl.

She has opened for Kathryn Roberts & Sean Lakeman, Blue Rose Code, The Cadbury Sisters and Beth Rowley, Eddi Reader, Ian McCulloch (Echo and the Bunnymen) and Mike Scott (The Waterboys) .

"A breathtaking vocalist delivering original and beautiful songs. An incredibly gifted songwriter
with a great stage presence and a gorgeous voice." Chris Hawkins – BBC 6Music and BBC Radio 2

"Her voice is pure and lovely and she possesses a natural talent as a writer and singer."
Simon Raymond – Bella Union Records

Tracey Browne

Tracey Browne has been making music and independently releasing recordings since 2001, when she used her final year university project to record and release her first album of original songs. After attending some publicly funded masterclasses on how to run a business in music, she learnt how to register her compositions with the relevant revenue collection agencies and her small, independent pursuit was born.

A few years later, Tracey obtained a training position at Airtight Productions, a recording studio based in Chorlton, Greater Manchester. She trained as a recording engineer under Tom Knott of The Earlies and this gave her the skills and opportunity to work on new music of her own. She released her self-produced EPs ‘Tooth and Nail’ in 2007 and ‘The Cat and the Moon’ in 2009.

In 2010, Tracey was requested to engineer an album by a local singer-songwriter and to work with producer Nigel Stonier on the recordings. This led to Tracey becoming involved with Thea Gilmore’s work between 2011 and 2017, Nigel having been Thea’s producer and band leader for many years. For the first tour, Tracey was employed as the band’s touring sound engineer; but her ability to play multiple instruments and sing was noticed and she soon joined the band as a backing vocalist, guitarist, bassist and pianist. The band toured in Germany and across the UK, including festival appearances at Glastonbury, Beautiful Days and Green Belt. A particular highlight was supporting John Cooper Clarke on his tour, which culminated in a standout show at the London Palladium.

Tracey also kept her hand in as a sound engineer, being a regular part of the in-house team at Cambridge Folk Festival between 2008 and 2015. If you visited, you would have seen her on and off the Club Tent stage and perhaps heard her giving her own music a cheeky spin over the sound system.

Tracey released two full length solo albums – ‘Everyone is Ordinary’ in 2012 and ‘The Doctrine of Song’ in 2017, both of which were co-produced with Nigel Stonier and featuring backing vocals by Thea Gilmore, Little Sparrow and Jacob H James. She has toured independent UK venues extensively and did a short tour in the Netherlands.

Tracey released a collaborative duo album in 2015 – ‘East by North West’ – with singer-songwriter Raevennan Husbandes, who is now a permanent member of the band Moulettes.

Janice Long very kindly listened to one of Tracey’s albums and played her track ‘The Mountain Goat’ out on her midnight BBC Radio 2 show, which Tracey followed up with a live performance on the show. She has opened shows for Thea Gilmore, John Bramwell of I Am Kloot and Lindisfarne.

All of these achievements came from hard work and generally being a decent person. Tracey had no team around her, no label, no publisher, no marketing manager. She followed connections as they were made and was always asked back to a venue after playing.

After all this and partly due to the Covid pandemic, Tracey took a hiatus from recording, writing and gigging between 2019 and 2022. She also deleted her previous social media accounts on Facebook and Twitter, so her new accounts don’t show the full history of her career. She is currently working on new material for 2026.