Rachel Unthank & The Winterset

Dancing down the leftfield and singing in their own lilting Geordie accents, Rachel Unthank & The Winterset make friends of staunch tradition and sonic adventure. The all-girl Northumbrian quartet have courted the mainstream without diluting their folk music, luring fans as disparate as Phil Jupitus, Nic Jones, Joan As Policewoman, Kate Rusby, Alasdair Roberts and Stuart Maconie. Fearless, peerless and wholeheartedly brave, they do the North-East proud with the honesty and imagination they bring to its traditions. Also don’t rule out charming interpretations of songs by the likes of Antony & The Johnsons, Robert Wyatt and Bonnie Prince Billy.

Second album, The BAIRNS, licensed to EMI Records, is the follow-up to debut album Cruel Sister; Mojo Magazine Folk Album of the Year 2005. Launched at Cambridge Folk Festival, The BAIRNS is rich with the quality of centuries-old songs and the creative force of four young musicians at their peak. Rachel Unthank & The Winterset push themselves and the listener, reaching profound levels of emotional and musical complexity, chaos and clarity.

The collective background in traditional music of Rachel, Becky, Belinda and Niopha is the anchor that affords them their sense of adventure. In much the same way that Peter Kay’s satire of the working class is underpinned by pathos and the sort of deep understanding it’s only possible to have by being one of them, Rachel Unthank & The Winterset subvert folk music with love and authority.

A major factor in their success has been their relationship with charismatic and virtuosic pianist Belinda O'Hooley, whose eerily detached accompaniments are at once abstract and unobtrusive. She leaves Rachel and Becky's singing sounding somehow unaccompanied and traditional, while creating a reflective, musical alter-discourse to their songs. Rachel’s younger sister Becky has grown so much as a singer that she now commands equal lead-vocal time. The line-up is completed by new member Niopha Keegan on fiddle, who comes from a family of innovative second generation musicians and singers brought up in the cultural melting pot of the London Irish scene, including her brother, the renowned flautist Niall Keegan.

Mojo Magazine Folk Album of the Year 2005 for ‘Cruel Sister’; Live Performance of the Year 2006 Cambridge Folk Festival; Artist of the Year 2007 Journal Culture Awards.

“I love the rough edges on that, the enthusiasm with which she sings. she doesn’t try to make it sound pretty, because it’s not a pretty song”
Andy Kershaw,
playing The Fair Flower of Northumberland on BBC Radio 3