By her own admission, Kate Rusby is a baby-faced slip of a girl who’s still asked to prove she’s old enough to buy wine at the local supermarket.

But, with a career spanning nearly two decades and countless awards and albums under her belt, she’s a leading light on the contemporary folk scene. Not for nothing is she known as the queen of British folk.

No longer is folk music the domain of beardy, ale-swigging types in chunky jumpers, sticking their fingers in their ears and warbling about wooing fair maidens on moonlit eves. Folk is cool – and it doesn’t get cooler than Kate Rusby.

The girl they call the ‘Barnsley Nightingale’ has collaborated with everyone from Idlewild’s Roddy Woomble to Ronan Keating. Even if you’re not familiar with her back catalogue, chances are you’ll have heard her sweet version of The Kinks’ Village Green Preservation Society, used as the theme tune to BBC1 sitcom Jam And Jerusalem.

Kate has been a regular on the folk circuit since she was barely out of nappies, thanks to her musician parents touring festivals with their ceilidh band.

Next week she’s in Bradford with a festive concert, Christmas Kate, featuring tracks from her album Awkward Annie, released this year, and latest album Sweet Bells, a compilation of festive songs traditionally sung in Kate’s native South Yorkshire.

Kate, 33, says she’ll be re-creating the hearty tradition of community singing sessions.

“We have a strong tradition of carol-singing, starting early November,” she says. “Sunday lunchtimes see hundreds of carol singers cramming into pubs to join in the unashamedly joyous singing. It’s an oral tradition dating back over 200 years.

Sweet Bells, released this week on Kate’s own label, Pure Records, features such intriguingly-titled songs as Here We Come A-Wassailing, Poor Old Horse, Serving Girl’s Holiday and The Miner’s Dream Of Home, alongside variations of old favourites like The Holly And The Ivy.

Kate was a musical child, singing from an early age and playing guitar, fiddle and piano. She later joined folk bands The Poozies and Equation, also featuring Seth Lakeman and Kate’s performing partner Kathryn Roberts, and her break came with debut solo album, Hourglass, in 1997. She went on to release Sleepless, Little Lights, Heartlands, Underneath The Stars, The Girl Who Couldn’t Fly and Awkward Annie, the first album she’s produced.

She describes making Awkward Annie, praised for being a more mature acoustic work, as the high point of her career. Does she feel that, following the chart success and accolades of recent years, she has more to live up to?

“Every record I’ve made hasn’t had a planned sound as such – all we know at the start is what songs we will do, and this record was the same,” she says. “It’s a little different to my others, that’s just because I produced it. People were asking if there’d be a big change in the sound, but why would there be? It’s my music, it’s me singing the songs I’ve written and found, it couldn’t be vastly different to my others.

“As for expectations, they’re always the same – make the record how we want to make it and hope that people like it. Anything after that is a bonus.

“I really enjoyed producing. I’ve always been heavily involved with arranging songs for my other records, so I knew what to expect,” she adds. “It was quite a burden to carry, though. My brother Joe helped. He’s a fantastic engineer with a great ear for music.

It wasn’t planned that I was going to produce this one, but with the split from John (ex-husband John McCusker), it wasn’t the right time to be in the studio together. He played on it though – he’s a fantastic musician and a great fella.”

Kate loves the traditional aspect of folk but as a songwriter; she’s more than an interpreter of songs.

“I’ll always be a bit of both. I like the challenge of taking an old song and making it my own, retelling an old story,” she says. “I’ve never really thought of myself as a songwriter, they just seem to pop out of my head late at night – very strange!”

She says her musician parents remain her biggest influences. “They were always playing and singing around the house, I picked up songs from the word go,” she says. “My two other main influences are (folk singers/musicians) Dave Burland and Nic Jones. It was at Barnsley Folk Festival that I sat listening to Dave and decided I might like to be a professional singer. Nic’s records were always on in the house. I never leave home without a CD of his in my car.”

Kate’s record label, Pure, is a family affair. “Years ago, when I was first thinking of making a record, my dad was lecturing on instrument repair at Leeds College of Music but was looking for something new to do. We wondered if it (setting up a record label) was something we could do ourselves. We looked into it and created Pure Records,” she says. “Pure, apparently, is the Greek meaning of Kate. It’s gone from strength to strength. My mum does the accounts, my sister Emma does the PR and Joe is my sound engineer. People ask if it’s weird working with your family, but I see it the same way as a family butchers or bakers.”

While her roots are firmly in folk, Kate is happy to occasionally step outside the folk scene. In 2006 she joined Ronan Keating for 2006 single All Over Again, which reached No. 6.

“It’s lovely when different things come along,” she says. “I’m lucky to make the music I want and now and again get asked to be part of exciting things like Jennifer Saunders’s Jam And Jerusalem, the film Heartlands, or children’s animation, Jack Frost, and do the song with Ronan Keating. It doesn’t distract from what I do.

“I never have regrets. I feel like the luckiest girl in the world and hope I can still be doing this for many years to come. But if I wasn’t a folk singer anymore, I’d love to have a greengrocers shop!”

Kate Rusby is at St George’s Hall on Tuesday (for tickets ring 01274 432000) and Harrogate Royal Hall on Friday, December 19 (for tickets ring 0845 1308840).