Grace Petrie

Promoting socialism and love through her earnest, but wry lyrical folk, Leicester, England's Grace Petrie balances the political and the personal in a canon featuring rousing, violin-fueled full-band arrangements alongside stark and intimate solo acoustic cuts. From 2006, she purveyed a relatively apolitical approach. Petrie's third album, however, 2010's Tell Me a Story, was a partisan collection of songs kicking against that year's swing to Conservatism in the U.K. 2011's Mark My Words was her first work with Caitlin Field, who became a key collaborator. Three albums as Grace Petrie & the Benefits Culture were deployed in a folk-punk vein, and 2017's Heart First Aid Kit provided a thematic balance of politics and love. 2018's Queer as Folk contained her anthemic, personally charged signature song "Black Tie." 2021's Connectivity and 2024's Build Something Better became Petrie's first records to reach the U.K. album chart.