Review: Kate Rusby at Christmas; The Unthanks Sing Emily Bronte

FOLK leading lights Kate Rusby and The Unthanks have Barnsley in common. Rusby and Unthanks' musical director and composer Adrian McNally both hail from there, but in every other way their shows were poles apart.

Rusby has been touring her South Yorkshire pub carol concerts for 16 winters, in the company of her regular band, augmented by the brass boys, who so evoke Christmas.

Rusby had played York Barbican two nights earlier and her return to Harrogate Royal Hall after a gap was night 13 of 14 on a tour that marked the debut of a couple of lovely new additions to a repertoire now spanning four winter albums, with a fifth in the pipeline for next year.

Would the curse of "13" play its part, Rusby wondered, but only "Ruby Twosday", the replacement for now retired model reindeer Ruby, had a brief malfunction when her head declined to nod. Oh deer, but not for long as new Ruby sparked into life for her party trick.

Kate had Brighton's flair for fashion to thank for her own new additions, red sparkly boots and a faux fur gilet that lit up. This was a joyous night indeed, replete with a swinging Let It Snow, three contrasting versions of While Shepherds Watched, a haunting Paradise, with Duncan Lyall's Moog to the fore; thrilling instrumentals led by Damien O'Kane; and of course Rusby a winter songbird in beautiful voice. Hark, an angel sings.

Rusby ploughs a steady furrow through the years, whereas The Unthanks are more experimental, both in subject matter and in song settings. Leeds Town Hall was full to the gills for the official premiere of a new commission from the Bronte Parsonage at Haworth to set Emily Bronte's dark, dark poems to music.

There had been a low-key warm-up in Northumberland, but Leeds was the apogee of the project, marking not only the "one-off" debut of The Unthanks Sing Emily Bronte but also Becky Unthank's first show proper since having a baby.

Quietly spoken sister Rachel admitted to feeling nervous, but was quickly put at ease by deadpan McNally quipping: "It's safer in here than outside," in reference to Black Eye Friday kicking off on the Leeds streets.

McNally had written tunes at Emily's piano over one long night at The Parsonage, and a piano would be the sole accompaniment to the songs that now feature on Part Three of The Unthanks trilogy of Lines recordings.

Rachel and Becky sometimes sang together , sometimes separately, switching the lead voice in the shared songs to suit poems rooted in death, female frustrations and the Yorkshire landscape. As ever, their harmonies were a thing of wonder, despite the absence of light and shade, and one selection each from their Lines projects rooted in the First World War and Hull fishing industry revolutionary Lillian Bilocca provided contrast. A singalong a cappella rendition of a New Year ballad written by the sisters' father provided a festive finale.

Charles Hutchinson