Music review: The Unthanks, Usher Hall, Edinburgh

This warm-hearted seasonal celebration was a near-continuous flow of festive song, writes Jim Gilchrist

The Unthanks, Usher Hall, Edinburgh ****

Over two decades, the Unthank sisters have evolved from being an unadorned Tyneside trad duo to a protean, eclectically-inclined presence on the folk scene, embracing everything from site-specific theatre to brass band collaborations, hosting their own festivals and making music for Mackenzie Crook’s BBC Worzel Gummidge adaptation.

For this warm-hearted, seasonal celebration, the core band of Becky and Rachel Unthank, pianist-arranger Adrian McNally, fiddler-singer Niopha Keegan and guitarist Chris Price were effectively augmented by a saxophonist, bassist and percussionist.

The Unthanks PIC: Sarah Mason

In a near-continuous flow of festive song, the sisters brought their light, breathy, at times spectral vocals to bear on hoary old favourites such as Oh Christmas Tree, but with engaging arrangements – the December chill of Mid-Winter Carol, for instance, warmed by a beefy saxophone break from Faye McCalman, or a wassailing song over deep drumbeat and vibraphone chimes.

Some standout moments, however, drew on less widely-known, local material, such as a revived mummer’s play, introduced by Price’s calling-on song, the sisters harmonising between mellifluous fiddle links, while the audience was enlisted into the chorus of a guizers’ anthem, Tar Barrel in Dale. There were fine sibling harmonies, too, in the familiar Coventry Carol and in a timely adaptation as O Holy Night morphed into Nurse Emmanuel, a heartfelt tribute to the NHS.

Drolly self-deprecating in her role as opener for the main attraction, Mercury-nominated singer-songwriter (and novelist) Kathryn Williams gave a clear-voiced account of her wry, confessional songs, commanding attention from the outset with her short but plaintive a cappella Books That Are Written. As she switched between acoustic and electric guitars, the latter provided a shadowy thrum for Answer in the Dark, and she closed with a clever, looping-assisted a cappella delivery for Little Black Numbers.