A music recommendation With a story. Just before we went to England at Christmas, Caitlin had taken Louis on the bus to a playground in Hexham, the good-size town not far from where they live. While there, Louis played with some children and Caitlin got talking to their adults. Among them were two sisters and their father.
The women tossed off that they were folk singers and gave her their names, Becky and Rachel Unthank - unusual surname, but it meant nothing to Caitlin. When they parted, they traded contact information, with the idea that perhaps they could get the younger sister's kid together with Louis for a play date. The older sister, Rachel, it turned out, lives in Corbridge, just on the other side of the churchyard from Caitlin and Bob, and has kids not far off the older boys' ages.
The connection never happened, partly because the country was soon locked down for Covid, and Christmas was fast approaching. But I was curious about the story of two folk singers when I heard it, and searched them out. It turns out the group is called The Unthanks, and they're a pretty big deal in the UK folk scene.
They've released several albums and have won numerous awards. The women sing, beautifully, and Rachel's ex-husband is the band's "music director" who arranges and writes some of the music and plays multiple instruments - as do the sisters.
It's sophisticated music, definitely with one foot firmly planted in the folk music world, but adding in all sorts of other influences. They're quite...literary. One of their projects is an album of songs and poetry by Molly Drake, the late mother of singer-songwriter Nick Drake. Another is an album of settings of poems by Emily Bronte. They're also very much rooted in the north of England and Northumberland and Tyneside (the Newcastle area) in particular.
The Unthanks: definitely worth a listen. You can sample the music here.
*
I was itching for fresh scenery again today so drove up to the university and wandered about the deserted campus. It was bitterly cold with a raw wind blowing from the north.
The first thing I saw was this trio of geese perched on two little balconies on the front of the parking garage at University Hospital. They were making quite a racket, or rather, one of them was, the one on top. He reminded me of a preacher in his pulpit.
I figured I could continue my study of modern architecture, especially brutalist work. The university has more than its fair share, including Weldon Library, where I worked in the 1970s, and the Social Science Centre. So here are some of the odd pictures I took.
 |
| Interdisciplinary Research Centre |
 |
| Interdisciplinary Research Centre |
 |
| Robarts Research Institute |
 |
| Social Science Centre |
 |
| Social Science Centre |
 |
| Social Science Centre |
 |
| Weldon Library - I'm standing where I used to park my motorbike (half a century ago); on the other side of the glass is where I worked in Circulation |
No comments:
Post a Comment