Review: Unthank : Smith, Trinity – ‘A master class in song’

It’s all about voices and places. The voices are those of Paul Smith and Rachel Unthank. The place is their homeland of the North East of England where all the songs they present tonight are rooted.

They can be happily filed away under unlikely pairing. Her, along with sister Becky, the heavenly voice that leads the diverse and genre refusing career trajectory of folkie legends The Unthanks.

He is the enigmatic frontman of indie stadium filers Maximo Park.

In town to present there well reviewed first album as a duo, Nowhere and Everywhere. As they are getting used to moonlighting in their new roles they’ve ditched the tropes of their usual stage personas.

No clog dancing from Rachel and no rock god posturing from Paul. All excess taken away to leave us with their entwinning voices and the shifting arrangements that back them.

Alex Rex, featuring Trembling Bells drummer Alex Neilson, have opened with an engaging set of anarchic folk settings with a heavy psyche undertow.

Shirley Collins bumps into The Piper at the Gates Of Dawn. The three piece then ably shift roles and provide the musical support for those two voices in the main set.

They open with Captain Bover. No instrumentation for now just those two voices finding their way together. A tale of press gangs whose leader’s funeral in the North East was greeted with turned backs and dropped trousers.

Both relish the opportunities to spin the stories that lay behind these songs. They both clearly love singing this material together.

Paul’s elegant, direct tone leads here whilst Becky twists harmonies around him. Different textures, slightly different accents.

By The Natural Urge the full band are back with us. Paul’s twisty guitar figure leads the joint vocal reflecting on the folly of human conflicts that our leaders never seem to learn from. A song inspired by the paintings of Paul Nash.

Horumarye is an extraordinary cover of Teeside folk artists Graeme Miles tune. Haunted vocals from Rachel leads on this one, scarily accompanied by her droning harmonium.

The band cook up an eerie storm behind her, shifting tones to reflect the sound of the wind over the moors. Shivers all around.

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By the time they’ve reached the epic Northumbrian child ballad Lord Bateman the Trinity crowd are completely won over. A musical setting for some found lyrics.

Paul’s voice leads us off here recounting the unhappy tale but Rachel trades lead vocals as we are ably led through the twisting story.

The pre bank holiday crowd are never going to let them leave so easily and they are back for some more unaccompanied harmonies on a Christmas favourite of Rachels before a mass sing a long to the folk rock national anthem that is Richard and Linda Thompson’s I Want to see the Bright Lights Tonight.

So may stories, so many moods, a master class in song all led by those distinctive, regional voices finding a joyful unison.

Main photo: Martin Siddorn

Read next:

• Review: Hack Poets Guild, The Folk House – ‘Invention, innovation and intimate storytelling’
• Review: The Haar, Downend Folk & Roots – ‘More than a little intense’
• Review: Three Cane Whale + Firelight Trio, St George’s – ‘Achingly beautiful’

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