Catherine Howe

Catherine Howe, a British singer and songwriter who was the youngest of five children, spent her childhood in Halifax, Yorkshire. Shortly before she turned twelve she moved to London to enroll at the Corona Stage School, where she trained in acting as well as singing. After graduating at eighteen, she chose to devote herself solely to music. Voice-and-piano demos she made at CBS studios in 1969 secured a contract with Reflection Records, which released her debut album, What a Beautiful Place, in 1971. Four years elapsed before her next record appeared, this time on RCA; titled Harry, its title track brought her an Ivor Novello Award for songwriting. Silent Mother Nature followed in 1976, and Dragonfly Days appeared three years later. When her agents pressed her to revise her style for stronger sales, Howe abandoned the music business altogether and returned to Halifax, where she married and raised a family. In 2005 she returned with Princelet Street, her first new recordings in more than twenty-five years. The following year Beat Goes On paired two of her earlier albums on a single disc, Harry/Silent Mother Nature.