Unthanks

[jlhoots]

Coming (relatively) soon.

I preordered.

I like all of their previous work.

[A Lark Ascending]

Really looking forward to this - reviews so far are very good.

Includes a version of King Crimson's 'Starless' - they definitely think sideways.

[mjazzg]

Another fan here.

Saw them late last year perform an evening of Anthony and the Johnsons and then Robert Wyatt songs. Marvellous.

Also, the sisters' recent TV presenting debut (?) on a doc about English folk dance.

[.:.impossible]

A new album?? Is there a release date? I am fascinated by this music.

[A Lark Ascending]

March 14th here in Blighty.

[mjazzg]

interview from today's paper, here

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2011/feb/27/unthanks-folk-northumberland-interview

[A Lark Ascending]

Nice interview.

Anyone smitten with The Unthanks should, if they don't know him already, seek out the recent CDs of Chris Wood. That same sense of drawing off a long established tradition, yet relating it to the contemporary world.

[jlhoots]

March 14th here in Blighty.

Apr. 19 in US (according to Amazon).

[mjazzg]

Nice interview.

Anyone smitten with The Unthanks should, if they don't know him already, seek out the recent CDs of Chris Wood. That same sense of drawing off a long established tradition, yet relating it to the contemporary world.

Thanks for the tip, Bev. I've been flirting (musically you understand) with investigating Mr Wood since I heard him on the BBC Folk awards a week or so ago. His songwriting and it's subjest matter, the De Menezes shooting, stood out. Is there one particular album you'd recommend starting with?

[A Lark Ascending]

Nice interview.

Anyone smitten with The Unthanks should, if they don't know him already, seek out the recent CDs of Chris Wood. That same sense of drawing off a long established tradition, yet relating it to the contemporary world.

Thanks for the tip, Bev. I've been flirting (musically you understand) with investigating Mr Wood since I heard him on the BBC Folk awards a week or so ago. His songwriting and it's subjest matter, the De Menezes shooting, stood out. Is there one particular album you'd recommend starting with?

Work your way through his three most recent solo albums: The Lark Descending (my favourite album of the Noughties in any genre); Trespasser; Handmade Life (the most recent one with the De Menezes song on it).

I'd also strongly recommend the album by The English Acoustic Collective called Ghosts - he is part of a trio with more instrumentals.

He had an ongoing partnership with melodeon player Andy Cutting during the 80s/90s (recently revived) - more instrumental again.

I'm a long time Richard Thompson fan going back to the early 70s - I'd say Wood is writing songs with the original-yet-rooted-in-English-tradition feel that Thompson pulled off in the late-60s and 70s.

Great live performer too - unlike The Unthanks his profile is still in the folk world so getting a ticket to see him won't be difficult!

[mjazzg]

Great, thanks Bev.

I'll dip my toe in somewhere. As someone who's never really appreciated Richard Thompson I'll overlook that comparison if it's OK with you?

[A Lark Ascending]

As someone who's never really appreciated Richard Thompson I'll overlook that comparison if it's OK with you?

Well, I'm talking the RT who wrote songs that sounded 300 years old rather than the RT who writes songs to get American club audiences hollerin'. Though the latter seemed to have kept him in a job, where he had a real hard time making a living with the former.

[mjazzg]

Aha! it's the latter RT that's never done it for me. Maybe I should try the earlier incarnation

Edited February 28, 2011 by mjazzg

[A Lark Ascending]

Aha! it's the latter RT that's never done it for me. Maybe I should try the earlier incarnation

Lots of good songs scattered across the first few Fairport albums. 'Henry the Human Fly' is chock full of an English version of the Harry Smith Anthology strangeness. 'I Want to See The Bright Lights Tonight', 'Hokey Pokey' and, especially, 'Pour Down Like Silver' are superb.

After that there are plenty of gems and fine performances - but also a lot of filler. Music that probably sounded exciting rocking out in a club but just seem a bit written by numbers. I'd not be without the records for the great bits, but...

I think he needs to spend some time with Chris Wood at his summer school in deepest Gloucestershire!

On Chris Wood, this is well worth a read:

http://www.englishacousticcollective.org.uk/JMI/index.html

I think he overstates his case but its a case worth making.

[mjazzg]

Aha! it's the latter RT that's never done it for me. Maybe I should try the earlier incarnation

Lots of good songs scattered across the first few Fairport albums. 'Henry the Human Fly' is chock full of an English version of the Harry Smith Anthology strangeness. 'I Want to See The Bright Lights Tonight', 'Hokey Pokey' and, especially, 'Pour Down Like Silver' are superb.

After that there are plenty of gems and fine performances - but also a lot of filler. Music that probably sounded exciting rocking out in a club but just seem a bit written by numbers. I'd not be without the records for the great bits, but...

I think he needs to spend some time with Chris Wood at his summer school in deepest Gloucestershire!

On Chris Wood, this is well worth a read:

http://www.englishac.../JMI/index.html

I think he overstates his case but its a case worth making.

Thanks again Bev. An interesting article.

Always such a confusing subject is English identity. I read here a few themes seemingly jumbled up but I'm taken by the perspective on enclosure and it's impact, especially the displacement of rural life/villages. I think I'd want to ask him about the Industrial revolution and attendant population movement too - there's an 'englishness' (if such a thing does exist) forged in those "satanic mills" and a musical heritage too, I suspect. I do warm to the idea of Anon as a national hero, it brings back fond memories of Christopher Hill books at Uni (too long ago).

I know very little about english folk music but I'd hope that there are songs that celebrate the precursors of Peterloo, some of the earlier english 'rebels'. I'm aware I'm entering territory I know too little about so I'll just go and listen to some of Wood's music and see what that says to me

[A Lark Ascending]

Wood distills many of these thoughts into one simple song here. Listen out for the killer 4th verse:

There is something just a bit troublesome about his sense of people rooted to a particular soil. He's as far from right-wing as you can imagine (listen to his brilliant attack on the BNP, 'Spitfires', reappropriating 'icons' of Britishness from the right), but the argument for packing off toffs back to London because they have no genuine roots in the Cotswolds can be used in more sinister ways.

Edited February 28, 2011 by A Lark Ascending