Rachel Unthank & the Winterset

Forging links between folk worlds old, new and other, Rachel and her set have blown a bracing northeasterly 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.

Dancing down the leftfield and singing in their own lilting Geordie accents, Rachel Unthank & The Winterset are the “inheritors, curators and gleeful distorters” (Ian MacMillan) 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, Kate Rusby, Paul Morley, Nic Jones, Phil Jupitus and Joan As Policewoman have joined the chorus of adulation from the press.

Further reading

Bab L’ Bluz announce new album

Come, enter the world of Swaken, the much anticipated second album by Bab L' Bluz.

The Zawose Queens from Tanzanian musical dynasty announce debut album Maisha

The Zawose Queens, Pendo and Leah, are the daughter and grand-daughter of the late Dr. Hukwe Zawose.

Track of the Day: ‘Chavale’ by Kerieva, from Dub No Frontiers

Today sees the release of Kerieva’s ‘Chavale’, the second track to be revealed from the forthc...

Track of the day: ‘AmmA’ by Bab L’ Bluz

French-Moroccan power quartet Bab L' Bluz, have released the second track from their forthcoming alb...