Newsletter          5^th February 2008

Contact details
Tel. 01342 716975
or email:
info_at_acousticsussex_dot_org_dot_uk

RACHEL UNTHANK &
THE WINTERSET
This Thursday, 7^th February, at Chequer Mead, East Grinstead

Last night’s winners of the Horizon Award

“With their debut scooping Mojo magazine’s Folk Album of 2005 and their 2007 follow-up causing a sensation with its original and empathic arrangements, the Northumbrian quartet have already established themselves in the folk hierarchy.”
BBC Folk Awards website  

“Captivating narrative folk songs… with voices, piano, fiddle and cello, they play hauntingly beautiful renditions of traditional songs, self-penned compositions and intriguing cover versions." 
Telegraph ‘It's looking great in 2008’

“Music as tough as it is gentle, as ancient as it is modern, and as coldly desolate as it is achingly intimate.. joyous, virtuous and luscious un-folk - ancient melodies, graphic atmospheres and everyday concerns radically transformed by bloody-minded and discriminating modern sensibilities”
The Observer

“Every now and again, and I mean, every now and again, once in a blue moon type of every now and again, you hear music that is so complete, so wonderful, unique and yet familiar that it stops you in your tracks. They have that blue moon magic about them, and they have it in spades.”
BBC Website Live Review

Four tracks from Rachel Unthank & The Winterset are now playing on the ‘new and improved’ jukebox on our MySpace site -  plus tracks by Anna Tabbush and Charlie Dore

Thursday
7 February
RACHEL UNTHANK & THE WINTERSET
at Chequer Mead
East Grinstead
www.chequermead.org.uk
Support:
Anna Tabbush

£13 (£11 conc)     8pm
Box office 01342 302000

Click here for News Release (PDF format) with biography

‘Cold comfort’ - click here for a recent article in
The Independent

Dancing down the leftfield and singing in their own lilting Geordie accents, the all-girl Northumbrian quartet have courted the mainstream without diluting their folk roots, luring fans as disparate as Phil Jupitus, Kate Rusby, and Stuart Maconie. They bring a refreshing honesty and imagination to the folk tradition, alongside charming interpretations of songs by the likes of Antony & The Johnsons, Robert Wyatt and Bonnie Prince Billy. In fact, while Rachel & co. come from a very traditional starting point, they are better seen alongside the likes of Sufjan Stevens and Joanna Newsom; eclectic artists whose only common ground is in sounding like nothing that has come before.

Their debut abum, Cruel Sister, was Mojo Magazine's Folk Album of the Year. The 2007 album, The Bairns has received wide acclaim:
- HMV Choice Top 30 Albums of the Year (number 18)
- fRoots Top Ten Albums of the 2007
- Financial Times Top Ten World/Folk Albums of 2007
- Mojo Magazine Top 10 Folk Albums of 2007
- Allaboutjazz.com Best of 2007
- Robert Wyatt’s Personal Top Ten Albums of 2007
- Tracey Thorn’s Personal Top Ten Albums of 2007
- Blue Bleezing Blind Drunk – Top Songs of 2007 in ‘The List’

Following an extensive UK album tour last Autumn, Rachel Unthank & The Winterset are now taking their acclaimed new album and charming live show around the UK and Ireland.

"Quite possibly the folk album of this generation" ***** Rock'n'Reel
"Utterly gorgeous" **** The Guardian
"Deeply atmospheric" **** MOJO
"Glorious" **** Uncut
“Intimate, epic, overflowing with feeling and musical intelligence”’
The Independent
“The Bairns is a magical album...a work of towering quality" The Telegraph
“The only new folk combo with a traditions-favouring spirit who would sound equally at home performing with Waterson:Carthy as they would Joanna Newsom” Time Out
"I just love it…I simply can’t recommend them enough” Bob Harris

Special support for this show is provided by Surrey-based Anna Tabbush, one of the hottest new British folk singer-songwriters on the scene. Anna's performing career in folk bands has been a busy one, playing fiddle with Meridian and The Climax Ceilidh Band as well as singing close harmony with The Tabbush Sisters. But her true vocation as a singer songwriter has only taken flight in the last few years. Her debut solo album Waiting in the Wings received a stream of glowing reviews from magazines such as fRoots, illustrating Anna’s crossover from traditional folk to original material through all phases in-between.

PLEASE NOTE
Rachel & Co now have a new pianist, Stephanie Conner (pictured at the top of the newsletter) who has replaced Belinda O’Hooley. Full details are on the band’s MySpace website – click here

Anna Tabbush

For your future diaries...

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Other 2008 dates in the Acoustic Sussex programme include:

Ø    18 February – Charlie Dore + Chris Simmons

Ø    1 March – Ashley Hutchings’ Lark Rise to Candleford + Ruth Notman

Ø    31 March – Brooks Williams + Marsha Swanson

Ø    21 April - Corinne West + David Celia

Ø    15 May– Tannahill Weavers + support (tbc)

Ø    2 June – Amy Wadge + support (tbc)

Ø    18 June – Eleanor McEvoy + support tbc

Ø    21 July - Eve Selis Band + support (tbc)

More information on all up-and-coming artists can be found on our website: www.acousticsussex.org.uk. You can also find us on MySpace (with samples from some of the artists appearing) at: www.myspace.com/acoustic_sussex. If you know anyone who you think may enjoy our events, please forward this email to them.

 
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