Rachel Unthank & The Winterset

Daily Telegraph Top Folk Album of the 2007
"It is by turns passionate, defiant and angry, and the strings of the Northern Sinfonia add to the intense beauty."
Observer Music Magazine Top 50 Albums of 2007 (number 17)
"The Bairns is a bewitching, dream-like, down-to-earth masterpiece."
Channel 4 Music Top Ten Albums of 2007
"Not just a great record but an important one; a classic in its own lifetime."
Winners of the BBC Radio 2 Horizon Award 2008

"Just beautiful, beautiful music. One day all music will sound like this" Phil Jupitus
"I just love it..I simply can’t recommend them enough” Bob Harris, BBC Radio 2
"Simply gripping..their ambition knows no bounds" fRoots
"simultaneously graceful and unflinching..spellbinding" Metro News
"joyous..refreshingly forthright and in-yer-face" Mojo Magazine
"austere and glacial.. one of my favourite albums of the year" Stuart Maconie
"A startlingly contemporary atmosphere"Rock’n’Reel
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.
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.


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