The Unthanks are my guilty, (Folk), pleasure. I can honestly say that I'm an A-Z music lover - Abba to Zappa. And have to confess to being in a Jazz Rock band for several years! But Folk music... I never got it. Then I heard "Last" on 6Music one day and bought the album. It's a beautiful, ethereal - and still raises the hairs on the back of my neck.
I would also recommend The Imagined Village - who stretch the Folk genre significantly. Their album "Bending The Dark", defies pigeon-holing. Reminiscent of Caravan - maybe.
And I can't leave without reproducing the lyrics of "Last", below:
Strangely, having not thought about the Unthanks for years, I recently listened to Here's the Tender Coming again and was reminded what a great song it is. As for English folk music, despite being Scottish I have fantastic childhood memories of listening to a tape of Pentangle's One More Road repeatedly and minutely examining the inlay card, which featured a photo of Pentangle sitting on a long sofa. More recently I have been blown away by Grace Petrie's Build Something Better.
I'm glad the Unthanks helped you to cast off your folk blind spot. I used to think similarly, but much of the genre is radical, political (with a large or small p), socially conscious, playing with big or universal themes, euphemistically filthy at times and curious to go beyond twee nostalgia or bland statements of manufactured love. Punk, pre-bling hip hop, these are all folk music in the sense of being ordinary people using music to help explore and explain their lives. The older I get, the more of a folkie I become, in the broadest sense of the term. And the beer's better at folk festivals than it is at Reading!
'The Unthanks 'Black Trade' is the song that shares a place on my imagined desert island disc list along with Captain Beefhearts 'Blue Jeans and moonbeams'. No genre boxes here.
The reason you listen to British folk music is to visit the other country where they do things differently. It's kind of funny to call the folk revival reactionary when it was engineered by political radicals. The problem with any sort of traditional folk songs is that if you start recording them a dozen at a time it doesn't take that long to run out of folk songs, and unlike American country music we're too far from the way of life to write new ones. I don't think expecting your every musical choice to flatter your taste is a particularly good policy.
I remember Mike Harding playing the track "The Testimony of Patience Kershaw" on his R2 Folk show and being moved to tears - I had been talking to our son about two of his great grandfathers working underground, one in South Wales the other in County Durham, and it really hit the spot. Since then the Unthanks (and the other musicians they have opened my eyes to) can do little wrong.
The Unthanks are my guilty, (Folk), pleasure. I can honestly say that I'm an A-Z music lover - Abba to Zappa. And have to confess to being in a Jazz Rock band for several years! But Folk music... I never got it. Then I heard "Last" on 6Music one day and bought the album. It's a beautiful, ethereal - and still raises the hairs on the back of my neck.
I would also recommend The Imagined Village - who stretch the Folk genre significantly. Their album "Bending The Dark", defies pigeon-holing. Reminiscent of Caravan - maybe.
And I can't leave without reproducing the lyrics of "Last", below:
We are lost
We are lost
We are lost
On and on and on we go
But back and back and back we go
The wisdom thrown out long ago
The great unlearning has begun
And we are lost
Time will pass and soon we'll know
What sons and daughters have to show
For all our speed and all our waste
Do you have a nasty taste?
The frightened people still believe
In gods and heroes and pure blood
The blood still flows and mums still lose
Their sons and daughters in the fields
The fields will soon be under seas
Continue doing as you please
But we won't last
We won't last
We won't last
The girl from 22 is lonely
The boy from 23 is lonely
The girl from 24 is lonely
The girl from 22's moved out
She's moved into another town
She'll move into another street
Another street where she won't meet
The boy from 23, who's lovely
The boy from 23 is lovely
Cause we are last
The past is gone, we don't deny
Cold and cruel without a lie
But failure is a victory
If from it we all get to see
That we are lost
We won't last
Remember the past
And we might last
Remember the past
Man should be the sum of his story
Man should be the sum of his story
Man should be the sum of his story
Now, Nick, I know you're too much an audiophile to not recall it's AC/DC's Back IN Black, not Back TO Black. :)
Correcting!
;) I knew you knew. I was just bein' a nitpick. Apologies.
And the Staves!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ryDA4zxiW6E&t=54s
Love and music are everywhere. What are we doing here otherwise?
Strangely, having not thought about the Unthanks for years, I recently listened to Here's the Tender Coming again and was reminded what a great song it is. As for English folk music, despite being Scottish I have fantastic childhood memories of listening to a tape of Pentangle's One More Road repeatedly and minutely examining the inlay card, which featured a photo of Pentangle sitting on a long sofa. More recently I have been blown away by Grace Petrie's Build Something Better.
I'm glad the Unthanks helped you to cast off your folk blind spot. I used to think similarly, but much of the genre is radical, political (with a large or small p), socially conscious, playing with big or universal themes, euphemistically filthy at times and curious to go beyond twee nostalgia or bland statements of manufactured love. Punk, pre-bling hip hop, these are all folk music in the sense of being ordinary people using music to help explore and explain their lives. The older I get, the more of a folkie I become, in the broadest sense of the term. And the beer's better at folk festivals than it is at Reading!
"The King of Rome" with the Brighouse & Rastrick - brings a tear to my eye every single time.
I love that one too
'The Unthanks 'Black Trade' is the song that shares a place on my imagined desert island disc list along with Captain Beefhearts 'Blue Jeans and moonbeams'. No genre boxes here.
The Unthanks were so gorgeous I wanted to feature them in That's Marvelous this week, but it felt like such brazen thievery :)
The reason you listen to British folk music is to visit the other country where they do things differently. It's kind of funny to call the folk revival reactionary when it was engineered by political radicals. The problem with any sort of traditional folk songs is that if you start recording them a dozen at a time it doesn't take that long to run out of folk songs, and unlike American country music we're too far from the way of life to write new ones. I don't think expecting your every musical choice to flatter your taste is a particularly good policy.
sisters harmonies are so great. eg McGarrigles, Roches, Shvsters. also a little bit Incredible String Bandy.
Totally agree about sisters harmonies. Let's not forget The Corrs
Love this and didn't know about The Unthanks. I have to admit that my guilty pleasure is Sting! Hope that doesn't horrify you 😍. xo
Another fine example of finding love where unexpected and a shameless plug for my own ravings: https://open.substack.com/pub/edypalman/p/intoxication-of-pigeons?r=1fi8s&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true
It is so refreshing to hear something different in a music world where so much new material has a familiar ring!
For us creators who delve into the past for inspiration, it is helpful having the likes of the Unthanks as a resource.
This is wonderful. I had never heard of them.
I remember Mike Harding playing the track "The Testimony of Patience Kershaw" on his R2 Folk show and being moved to tears - I had been talking to our son about two of his great grandfathers working underground, one in South Wales the other in County Durham, and it really hit the spot. Since then the Unthanks (and the other musicians they have opened my eyes to) can do little wrong.