Rachel Unthank and the Winterset, spine-tingling, authentic, come to the U.S. for the first time, play Iron Horse this Thursday night (9/25)

“Rachel and her band will knock you out. I haven’t heard music that reached in and grabbed me like this since I discovered Sandy Denny era Fairport Convention, June Tabor, Steeleye Span, Nick Drake, or Radiohead. It’s “folk” for sure but that’s just the front gate of this ornate castle.” – Jim Neill (me)

"Intimate, epic, overflowing with feeling and musical intelligence" - The Independent

"spine-tingling.. deeply atmospheric.. constantly surprising" - **** Mojo

"It is by turns passionate, defiant and angry, and the strings of the Northern Sinfonia add to the intense beauty." - Daily Telegraph

"They are like the morning dew that hasn't steamed off yet, they are new and fresh and I really don't think they know how good they are" - Robert Wyatt

Rachel Unthank & The Winterset's new album The Bairns came out in in the United States in August on Peter Gabriel’s Real World Records. They’re hitting our shores this Fall

The band have been nominated for the UK's prestigious Mercury Prize. Of the 12 artist nominated, they're in great company with the likes of Radiohead, Robert Plant & Alison Krauss, Elbow and British Sea Power.

Described as "a bewitching, dream-like, down-to-earth masterpiece" in the Observer Music Magazine's Top 50 Albums of the 2007, The Bairns is already a classic in its own lifetime.

Dancing down the leftfield and singing in their own lilting Geordie accents, Rachel Unthank & The Winterset are the "inheritors, curators and gleeful distorters" (Ian MacMillan) of Tyneside's traditions.

Elements of blues, jazz, burlesque cabaret, classical and leftfield contemporary music make their take on folk music peerless, fearless and wholeheartedly brave, winning fans as disparate as Robert Wyatt and Joan As Policewoman. Rachel Unthank & The Winterset's debut album Cruel Sister won the Mojo Folk Album of the Year award, and their new album The Bairns has been described as "utterly gorgeous" and "a work of towering quality" by The Telegraph. Rachel Unthank & The Winterset were nominated for Best Group, Best Live Act, Best Album and The Horizon Award at 2008 BBC Folk Awards, winning the Horizon Award.

Rounding out the bill nicely, Keep Your Silver Shined, is the latest album from Devon Sproule, produced in the heart of Virginia’s Blue Ridge mountains, the album highlights Sproule’s talent for combining Appalachian, folk and jazz influences. From the front porch thump of "Old Virginia Block" to the high lonesome traditional "The Weeping Willow,” featuring fellow Virginia-native Mary Chapin Carpenter, this record finds Sproule making another important contribution to the Great American Songbook.
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