theartsdesk is calling her in her Northumberland cottage to talk to her about The Unthanks’ new album, Last, which contains many Minstrelsy-sourced numbers. Yet for such a communicator of woe she is ...

If you came for the clog dancing, prepare to be disappointed. The opening track on the fifth album proper by Rachel and Becky Unthank sets an uncompromising pace. Billowing up on clouds of strings and ...

It was not the sound, however of the girls that, last night, was, initially, most striking. It was their sense of theatre. Rachel and Becky dressed in Fifties frocks looking like characters in one of ...

NO drums, no clog dancing. If you require an idea of what to expect when The Unthanks play Edinburgh's Queen's Hall next week that's as good a summary as any. "This may be the first tour that doesn't ...

If you are looking for a secular soundtrack to the festive season, check out this live offering from Rachel and Becky Unthank. Recorded in the intimacy of the Union Chapel, Northumberland’s most ...

Rachel and Becky Unthank (yes, that's their given name) grew up living and breathing folk music in England's Northumberland County -- their parents, both singers, were active performers, and as the ...

We’ll send you a myFT Daily Digest email rounding up the latest Life & Arts news every morning. The Unthanks are finishing a year that saw two album releases, a collaboration with a brass band, live ...

Folksong has a history of packaging iron fists in velvet gloves. Some of the darkest deeds in our collective memory, from Little Musgrave’s slaying of one amorous misadventurer to the Battle of Harlaw ...

SUCH is the growing appeal and popularity of The Unthanks that this refreshingly different folk outfit can afford to dedicate their latest live show to other performers’ music. Tyneside sisters Rachel ...

Sherlock’s Martin Freeman presented Northumbrian group The Unthanks with album of the year at the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards. Their studio release Mount The Air is an ambitious work acclaimed by music ...

THERE are major changes afoot within the ranks of unconventional folk outfit The Unthanks. But fans of the Mercury-nominated band, who take their name from Tyneside sisters Rachel and Becky Unthank, ...