In a few short years The Unthanks have broken out from the folk ghetto to mainstream acclaim thanks to a series of offbeat gigs and now they are returning to Yorkshire for two special concerts.
They are paying two nights at the Hebden Bridge Picture House taking on the best of Antony and the Johnsons and Robert Wyatt. But are Becky and her sister Rachel taking too big a gamble tackling two of their favourite singers?
“At first it was a bit of a silly idea, like imagine if we did a concert of our favourite songs by them, but they’re so inspiring to listen to and so interesting, ” Becky told The Culture Vulture.
“We kind of dipped our toe in with Sea Song, which I sing, and was on one of our albums. We also did For Today I Am a Boy, which we sang when we were Rachel Unthank and the Winterset, and it always went down well live.
“You think are we setting ourselves up for a fall here, but actually it is about exploring their music more. They may be huge artists but in the folk world they are not that well known, so we also wanted to draw attention to the stories in those songs.”
Unusually on their traditional winter tour the Unthanks are playing their only local gigs in Yorkshire’s most bohemian town.
“We play a lot in Yorkshire, particularly West Yorkshire, but something always draws us back to Hebden, because the audience are always amazing and it always feels warm and lovely to play there.
“As you start playing more and more places like the Trades Club in Hebden always supported us, and we’re glad they’ve got Picture House so we still get to play in this gorgeous little town.”
The band played two gigs at London’s Union Chapel trying out these songs – a live album of those shows is released on November 28th – but they have also had the thumbs up from Robert Wyatt.
“We played in Lincoln a few years ago, and he lives there, so it was quite scary to perform Sea Song in front of him. But afterwards I went up to him, and he said: ‘Oh Hi. You’re my voice.’
” He’s been really supportive and helpful through the whole project suggesting what songs we should do. He’s been lovely and he loves the album, which is amazing in a crazy way.
“When you do something like this you don’t even think I hope the artist loves the music because you don’t even think they are even going to hear it. You’re not looking for their approval because you might be butchering their favourite songs, so the fact he likes the album is an honour.”
The last few years have been a real rollercoaster for the Unthanks as they have expanded their line up, secured a Mercury nomination, toured the world and even endured that pillock Jools Holland on Later.
“I’m really pleased we’re still doing it because when we first decided to do it full time I was at university, and we thought we’d give it a year to just see how it goes.
“That was years ago and we’re still doing so many different projects like the brass stuff with the Brighouse and Rastrick band. I just love doing the Robert Wyatt stufff and I can’t to get on tour to sing those songs again.”
The Unthanks appear at the Hebden Bridge Picture House on 5-6 December with tickets priced £17.50 available from
www.yougottickets.com