Rachel Unthank & The Winterset

TRACKS
01 On a Monday Morning 3.13
02 January Man 3.31
03 Fair Rosamund 2.57
04 Cruel Sister 8.41
05 Rap Her To Bank 1.34
06 Raven Girl 2.08
07 Twenty Long Weeks 3.20
08 The Fair Flower of Northumberland 4.51
09 The Greatham Calling On Song 5.58
10 River Man 5.01
11 Bonnie At Morn 4.14
12 John Dead 3.47
13 Troubled Waters 5.06

FOLK ALBUM OF YEAR 2005: MOJO MAGAZINE

"Simply gripping..their ambition knows no bounds..such a gratifying album” fROOTS

“joyous...refreshingly forthright and in-yer-face” **** MOJO MAGAZINE

“When they strike gold, the results are electrifying” NETRHYTHMS.COM

“This is music lived, not learned” FOLK ON TAP

“Tight, evocative and full of resonance.. an inspiration" FATEA.FREESERVE.CO.UK

"A quite wonderful album...I just love it. Bringing traditional music right into the 21st Century, I can't recommend it strongly enough…when the Radio 2 Folk Awards come round next year, I really hope that this album will be one of the contenders" BOB HARRIS, BBC RADIO 2

“Terrific stuff...so conditioned have we been in recent times to hearing folk songs delivered in winsome, prettified female voices, this comes as quite a shock. A very welcome shock. More Eliza Carthy than Cara Dillon, Rachel Unthank sings with a rare boldness in a Georgie accent that’s so in your face it almost seems harsh, but it carries the finest virtues of any traditional singer, and that is to convey the story in an honest and direct fashion. Simply gripping..their ambition knows no bounds..such a gratifying album. ” COLIN IRWIN, FROOTS

"Fresh voung voices digging deep into the tradition and coming up with the goods" MIKE HARDING BBC Radio2 (19.07.05)

“So does the album deliver? Emphatically yes, not least in its simultaneous looking back to and drawing on tradition, and taking it forward in imaginative and often innovative treatments of songs. When they strike gold the result is electrifying… this fine yet challenging CD will court mild controversy in folk circles and be a talking-point for at least the rest of 2005!" NETRHYTHMS.CO.UK

“When the Radio 2 Folk Awards come round next year, I really hope that this album will be one of the contenders. A quite wonderful album...I just love it. Bringing traditional music right into the 21st Century, I can't recommend it strongly enough…" BOB HARRIS ON CRUEL SISTER (Bob Harris plays Twenty Long Weeks and Bonnie at Morn on his Friday and Saturday night shows)

"Breaking the trend of fey, winsome female voices so much in recent vogue, the debut album by a young Northumberland singer is refreshingly forthright and in-yer-face. Sister Becky, with whom she’s mostly gigged up until now, harmonises on a fearless repertoire that tackles material as disparate as Cyril Tawney’s Monday Morning, the trad epic Cruel Sister and the joyous Greatham Calling On Song."

“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)

“..an innocent elegance…Rachel’s conviction in the story telling and appreciation of traditional music mixed with the bravery of her own sound is compelling; producing songs that belong to both the past and the present, un-sanitised by production. Cruel Sister is an awesome stepping stone on a journey that will be gold dust to the folk world as it develops in its own experience.” FOLKING.COM

“..dancing down the left field..it does the band and the North East proud. Tight, evocative and full of resonance..an inspiration.” **** FATEA.FREESERVE.CO.UK

"Fresh and charming debut from the north-eastern Unthank sisters and band. Trad/trad-style songs with honest, captivating vocals and imaginative arrangements." BBC RADIO 2 FOLK WEBSITE

In the fRoots review of Chris Wood’s new album, Colin Irwin brackets Rachel in with Martins Simpson and Carthy, Johnny Dickinson and Wood himself, as part of movement of singers “all telling stories in different and distinctively individual, yet tellingly basic ways. A new era, perhaps, of substance over style as the story of the a songs reigns once more in a stripped-down fashion that perhaps it truer to the spirit of the source singers of old.”