Rachel Unthank - Voice and Cello
Becky Unthank - Voice
Stef Conner - Voice and Piano
Niopha Keegan- Fiddle and Voice
Influences
Mam and Dad Unthank! The Keelers, The Wilsons, The Waterson/Carthys, June Tabor, Joni Mitchell, Sandra & Nancy Kerr, Voice Squad, CBS, The Elliots of Birtley, all the floor singers and folk we have seen sing in our lives.
Then there's the contemporary music that filters our consciousness. We are currently listening to Sufjan Stevens, Lau, Joan As Policewoman, Robert Wyatt, Jon Redfern, Alasdair Roberts, Dresdon Dolls, Ben Folds, Bonnie Prince Billy, Regina Spektor, Anthony & The Johnsons, Nick Drake, The Books, Chris Wood, Billy Holliday and Led Zeppelin.
As Louis Armstrong said, "all music is folk music, I ain't never heard a horse sing a song"!
Sounds Like
‘Intimate, epic, overflowing with feeling and musical intelligence’ The Independent
“They might not end up being the best-selling British all-girl group of all time, but they’re well on their way to being the most charismatic and imaginative. The Winterset create a sensationally graceful sound that can be epic and subdued, dreamy and specific, as well as supernaturally ancient and defiantly modern.. easily more contemporary and stylish than boys in skinny trousers holding electric guitars like it’s 1969.” Paul Morley, Sunday Telegraph
“Every now and again, and I mean, every now and again, once in a blue moon type of every now and again, you hear music that is so complete, so wonderful, unique and yet familiar that it stops you in your tracks. They have that blue moon magic about them, and they have it in spades.” BBC Website Live Review
Forging links between folk worlds old, new and other, the Mercury Music Prize nominated Rachel Unthank & The Winterset have blown a bracing north-easterly gale through traditional English song, casting it in an endlessly inventive and playful new mould. Transcendent and grounded music folds around unsentimental old, new and imaginatively borrowed stories of booze, brawls, abuse, loss, fear, infantile death, depravity and sorrow. “If the effect is austere, it is never bleak. Rather the starkness is graceful, gripping and utterly thrilling” says Nigel Williamson in HMV Magazine.
Described as “a bewitching, dream-like, down-to-earth masterpiece" in the Observer Music Magazine’s Top 50 Albums of the 2007, The Bairns is already “a classic in it’s own lifetime” (Channel 4), featuring as either the top or only folk album in every 2007 end-of-year poll it featured in and finally being nominated for the 2008 Nationwide Mercury Music Prize. . Subverting folk music with love and authority, Rachel Unthank and the Winterset are perhaps unprecedented in their ability to ability to communicate traditional music to unforgiving mainstream audiences: “a sensationally graceful sound that can be epic and subdued, dreamy and specific, as well as supernaturally ancient and defiantly modern.. easily more contemporary and stylish than boys in skinny trousers holding electric guitars like it’s 1969.” Paul Morley.
Dancing down the leftfield and singing in their own lilting Geordie accents, Rachel Unthank & The Winterset are described by Ian MacMillan as the "inheritors, curators and gleeful distorters" of Tyneside's traditions. Discreetly provocative arrangements draw on elements of blues, jazz, music hall, burlesque cabaret, classical and leftfield contemporary music, making their take on folk music peerless, fearless and wholeheartedly brave. Fans as disparate as Robert Wyatt, Paul Morley, members of Radiohead, members Portishead, Ben Folds, Tracey Thorn, Nic Jones, Phil Jupitus, Adele and Joan As Policewoman have joined the chorus of adulation from the press. Debut album Cruel Sister won Mojo Folk Album of the Year, and new album The Bairns has been described as "utterly gorgeous" by The Guardian as "a work of towering quality" by The Telegraph. Rachel Unthank & The Winterset were nominated for Best Group, Best Live Act, Best Album and The Horizon Award at 2008 BBC Folk Awards, winning the Horizon Award.
Rachel Unthank & The Winterset's Friend Space (Top 16)
Hi there, wanted to drop by and say hello to you and to say that I hope you are having a great week. Keep in touch and look forward to hearing from you. Your music is blissful. I adore it so much. Sara XXX
The Unthanks @ candle-lit 12th century halifax parish church on Sat 24th Oct. + kathryn edwards + support real ale bar in church. pay on door or advanced from www.ticketweb.co.uk www.doghouseuk.com
Hello from the amazing windy plains just outside Calgary , Alberta Wonderful sites and sounds in your space.Many discoveries made at your space, very nice indeed to be Space m8s.
In a act of Kindness endorphin levels are elevated in the Giver, the Receiver and the Observer, how nice is that.
"do not seek happiness .. but .. do rid your self of unhappiness = Zero Negative thoughts"
"Share knowledge ,it is a way to achieve immortality"
I'm really excited to have uploaded to myspace my first
video! It's called 'A Day At The Country
Show'. I'd love you to check it out and
let me know what you think.
we are so excited that you are playing for us in october. The gis is going to be heldin the historic and quite beautiful 12c Halifax Parish Church which we are going to light entirely by candles. If you want to get an idea what it will look like take a look at the marissa nadler pics at www.doghouseuk.com.
Hi Becky, Thank you for your kind words. I love your sound, attitude, simply your music. Are you going to Womad Australia and New Zealand? We might go there. See and hear you somewhere. Are you coming to Scandinavia soon? Best Pekka
Thank you very much for having a listen and your kind words. WOW.It means a lot coming from you ladies as I adore your music! Would be lovely to have you all come tour the Maritimes someday...keep in touch! xo, Babs
Hi the Unthanks, Thank you so much for the add and stopping by to say hello, it's very much appreciated. My friend Sarah took me along to see yourselves perform in Lancaster just before last Christmas and i must say i was pretty overwhelmed by the whole experience. There was a nice intimate atmosphere and one could really appreciate the vocals and the musicianship (and the humour too). I've taken to learning a few of your songs on the guitar also, it's great stuff to play your songs. I'm looking forward to seeing yourselves perform again. It's been an education discovering your wonderful music. Finally, I look forward to hearing your future material and long may your success continue. all the best, Colum
