Links on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCn70mqfeQkRboNDHr6-pBIA
This Includes ‘The Bay of Fundy’ from the ‘Sorrows Away’ album
Some words and images from Alan Dearling
The Unthanks were very much lauded as ‘Nu-Folk’ at the beginning of the 2000s. Hailing from Tyne and Wear, the sisters, Rachel and Becky, brought some northern grit to folk music, whilst remaining very true to the traditional musical, social and economic heritages depicted in many of their ‘story’ songs. Some of their singing is almost glacial in its dark magic. Sometimes they are mischievous.
Last night, for the first time playing in Todmorden at a totally sold-out event, the five-piece Unthanks performed a show in the Unitarian Church. It took place immediately after the England-Slovakia footie match in the European Championships. However, this was no rowdy football crowd, the audience sat in the church pews, spell-bound by the musical magic weaved by the two Unthank sisters and the other three members of the current line-up. I’ve included a few pics from the gig – don’t worry folks, even if it was a concert-style and at times almost reverential atmosphere, there were jokes, there was a bar and even clog dancing!!!!
As Becky Unthank told the packed audience, she is the quiet one, Rachel is the noisy one! Their musical colleagues in the Unthanks are: Adrian McNally; Niopha Keegan, fiddle and vocals; and Chris Price.
Rachel and Becky Unthank at the Unitarian Church.
I first saw them at The Maltings Theatre in Berwick-upon-Tweed when they were still billed as Rachel Unthank and the Winterset. It was at about the time of the release of their second album, ‘The Bairns’ around 2007. Theirs is often described as an, “…eclectic approach in combining traditional English folk, particularly Northumbrian folk music, with other musical genres.” (from Wikipedia) .
They’ve released a diverse range of albums and many of their songs have the ability to remain ‘haunting’ your own personal memory. For me, one such is, ‘Here’s the Tender coming’, about the Press Gangs, from their third album released in 2009. Many songs contain dark themes, not quite murder ballads, but certainly tinged with doom and sadness. I believe they’ve now topped a dozen album releases. Their debut album, ‘Cruel Sister’, was Mojo magazine’s Folk Album of the Year in 2005. ‘Mount the Air’, released in 2015, won the award for the best album in the 2016 BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards. At this concert they featured songs from Molly Drake, mother of singer-songwriter and musician Nick Drake along with songs based on the words from the writings of the Brontë sisters.
Todmorden, like Haworth, the home of the Brontës, is in Yorkshire’s Pennines. Somehow, the Unthanks’ style of almost minimalist music, with its intensity, piercing harmonies and sometimes off-kilter time changes seems at one with the local landscapes. They also included songs that have been used in TV programmes such as ‘Worzel Gummidge’…’Farewell Shanty’: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NiB9y9m91qY
And here is them live performing the truly memorable, ‘Magpie’, which was used in ‘True Detective’: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rLWuWpIO_OM
“One for sorrow, two for joy…seven for a secret never told.”
Their music evokes stark, yet beautiful landscapes, and sometimes the darkness of ‘real’ lives. Their repertoire includes many traditional songs about working class histories in the fishing industry and industrial settings. One example, ‘Sorrows Away’ which I think they said hails from Nova Scotia, (and which features on the album of the same name), they learned from their dad, George, who is himself a singer with Keelers’ folk group in the North-East of England.
A rich variety of enterprises…
On their Facebook page they wrote just before performing in Todmorden, “(We’re) hitting the road today. Usually we keep shows and singing residentials well apart but this next few days we’ve got 3 festivals in 3 days and then straight to Allendale to start prepping food for a singing residential, so although we’re heading to London tonight with our stage gear and fancy garb, we’ve got pans and potato peelers in the van!
This June, we’re celebrating the lives and legacies of the Brontë sisters with a series of events surrounding our production of Underdog: The Other Other Brontë.”
Another recent venture is their contribution to the new album, ‘Proxy Music’:
The Unthanks tell us that, “There’s lots of love and great reviews out for Linda Thompson’s new record, on which we feature! Proxy Music features The Unthanks, John Grant, Eliza Carthy, Martha and Rufus Wainwright, Kami and Teddy Thompson, interpreting songs newly written by Linda Thompson, robbed of her own wonderful voice by the onset of spasmodic dysphonia, a neurological voice disorder.
The Unthanks take on ‘Three Shaky Ships’, co-written by Linda Thompson and Richard Thompson, performed by Rachel Unthank (voice), Becky Unthank (voice), Adrian McNally (piano, Fender Rhodes, keyboards, drums) and Chris Price (guitars, bass), recorded at Unthanks HQ in Northumberland.
Linda’s songs deserve your ears!”
Again, and an example of their versatility, two of the last albums which I purchased from The Unthanks, were: Diversions series Vol. 1 (The Songs of Robert Wyatt and Antony & The Johnsons), released in November 2011, and Vol. 3 (Songs from the Shipyards), released in November 2012.
The Unthanks are a unique talent… and achieve their popularity at their many live events by being engagingly up-front and personal through being able to communicate with every single member of an audience.
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