The Unthanks have covered a lot of ground in the past decade and watching them evolve over this period has been truly inspiring.” The second “new” song, following The Old News, is Rachel Unthank’s instant classic, The Isabella Colliery Coke Ovens. It’s a sliver of bucolic beauty in which Unthank recounts a Tyneside walk among the remnants of the region’s steel ovens and reflects on the way that moments of pleasure can carry us through hard times. Reinhard Zierke (5 November 2016). "Water of Tyne". Mainly Norfolk: English Folk and Other Good Music . Retrieved 17 May 2017.

Teddy Jamieson (8 February 2015). "The Unthanks: Mount The Air (Rabble Rouser)". Sunday Herald. Glasgow . Retrieved 11 February 2015. One of the really impressive things about The Unthanks is their flexibility as a unit – they can perform or tour as the full 11-piece band, a core five-piece, or just an acapella vocal trio. McNally admits that this is driven by pragmatism as much as art. “You want to be able to do what you want to all the time but it doesn’t make any financial sense having such a big band, it’s crippling. And we like to tour as a five because we don’t like saying no! We can do as we please, it’s enjoyable to be able to play in different forms and spaces, both in more evolved and then more intimate ways.”

Only From Us!

The same feeling is echoed in “The Bay Of Fundy”. Initially written and recorded by US folklorist Gordon Bok, The Unthanks unmoor the song from the unforgiving tides of the Gulf of Maine and imbue it with a universal feeling of longing and natural wonder. It’s upbeat in tone, the siblings’ voices twinned in perfect harmony, intermittently shadowed by that of guitarist Chris Price, until the whole thing finally dissolves into a semi-orchestral coda.

Joe Breen (26 February 2015). "The Unthanks: Mount The Air Album Review". The Irish Times . Retrieved 4 April 2015. It ties in with the whole philosophy of the folk tradition, trying to learn from our past, from the stories of our ancestors. Trying to reflect and make our lives better today. Essential Signs Paul Hartnoll, Full Time Hobby and Peacefrog" (Press release). Name PR. 2 December 2014 . Retrieved 9 March 2015. Vol. 5 in the Unthanks' Diversions series. Also available in a "Special film edition" which includes a film by Ainslie Henderson, As We Go, about The Unthanks' life on the road a b c Kidman, David (27 April 2020). "The Untnanks – Diversions Vol. 5: Live and Unaccompanied". Folk Radio UK . Retrieved 28 April 2021.B: Wow, I can’t believe that! I nearly didn’t bring it up as well! When I was younger and mum would try and get us to sing this song, I always felt a bit embarrassed, but now I can barely sing it without crying. Maybe because I’ve got kids. I mean, you don’t need to have kids to have that understanding, but maybe I did! [Laughs] Neil Spencer (20 November 2011). "The Unthanks: The Songs of Robert Wyatt and Antony & the Johnsons– review". The Observer . Retrieved 30 November 2011. But projects and diversions aside, Sorrows Away is the long-anticipated follow-up to Mount The Air, and as the title suggests, promises to be a blues-buster and a step into the light for a band known more for melancholy and well, sorrow! Andy Gill (23 October 2011). "The Unthanks play Robert Wyatt and Antony and the Johnsons, Union Chapel, Islington". The Independent . Retrieved 21 November 2015.

Guardian Books podcast : Royalty and the English folk song. The Guardian (podcast). 1 June 2012 . Retrieved 2 November 2015.There are also moments to remind early fans why they first fell in love with The Unthanks. Singing Bird opens with an organ and the stark, lone voice of Niopha Keegan painting a bucolic landscape with this old love song, “ But there’s none of them can sing so sweet / my singing bird / as you”. A trumpet solo by Lizzie Jones allows for a moment of reflection between verses. This rendition is performed with such tender beauty it sends a shiver down the spine, and if any of the songs here bring a tear to the eye, this one will.

Mount the Air was the winner in the best album category in the 2016 BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards. [5] [6] [7] Memory Box and Archive Treasures 2005–2015 [ edit ]

The Sandgate Dandling Song is a North East standard from the perspective of a boatman’s wife. She’s bobbing her child on her knee and singing sweetly to comfort it yet thinking all the while of her husband’s failings and propensity for drunken violence. It’s sung tenderly and with palpable love by Rachel Unthank, giving the listener a sense of conflicted feelings on the part of the narrator, despite the abuse. The Unthanks have added a verse, written and sung by Adrian McNally (who doesn’t appear in promo shots) from the perspective of the boatman, in which he sounds soaked with regret and determined to change, to not follow in his father’s footsteps, although it feels too late. Diversions Vol. 4: The Songs And Poems of Molly Drake" (PDF). The Unthanks . Retrieved 19 April 2017. BU: Well, in moments of despair, feeling lost or looking for the right direction, I think we all look around for something to rely on and believe in. It’s difficult, certainly politically, at the moment for us to rely on people who are leading us. We’re searching around for something that’s true and real. Looking to the past helps us to work out what we’re going to do in the future. a b Robin Denselow (24 August 2007). "Rachel Unthank and the Winterset, The Bairns". The Guardian . Retrieved 13 March 2015. Reinhard Zierke (13 April 2017). "Flit". Mainly Norfolk: English Folk and Other Good Music . Retrieved 17 May 2017.