Karine Polwart and Rachel Unthank & The Winterset
Saturday 31st January 2009, 7.30pm
City Halls : Grand Hall
http://www.celticconnections.com/whatson/event/79239
Never one to rest on her numerous laurels, the prolifically gifted Karine Polwart presents a brand-new set of her less-performed songs, mostly from her debut album Faultlines and 2007’s spellbinding traditional collection, Fairest Floo’er.
Regular accompanists Inge Thomson and Stephen Polwart, with special guests Kim Edgar (piano) and Jenny Hanson (strings), will feature in atmospheric arrangements tailored to the City Halls’ celebrated acoustics, alongside freshly penned material from a Scottish/Canadian songwriters’ collaboration at the 2008 Celtic Colours festival in Cape Breton.
Nominated for the 2008 Mercury Prize, Rachel Unthank & The Winterset’s second album The Bairns won a remarkable sweep of critical superlatives on its release, with The Observer calling it “a bewitching, dream-like, down-to-earth masterpiece”. Layering Geordie-accented vocals with cello, violin, accordion and piano, the all-female quartet align atmospheric traditional ballads with contemporary material by artists as diverse as Robert Wyatt, Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy and fellow Northumbrian Terry Conway.
