Here's the Tender Coming

Here's the Tender Coming, the third album by English folk group The Unthanks, and the first under The Unthanks moniker, was released on 14 September 2009. It was Folk Album of the Year for The Guardian and also for MOJO magazine. In the sleeve notes for the album, Rachel Unthank said that although the Tender in the album's title track refers to the boat that is on its way to press men to sea, "the title of this song seemed to encapsulate for us the feeling of our new album, which is perhaps calmer and a little warmer in contrast to the stark bleakness of The Bairns".

Reception

Sid Smith, of BBC Music, described it as an "astonishing record", "beautiful”, “haunting”, and “beguiling". For The Guardian, Colin Irwin said: "This album may not be quite as bleak as The Bairns, and the sound is more sophisticated, but they still sound like nobody else... Tracks build slowly and mysteriously, but all are in service of the song. Their arrangement of the title track − a traditional song about the emotional devastation wrought by press gangs − brilliantly encapsulates the story's fraught desperation. Their version of Nobody Knew She Was There, one of Ewan MacColl's lesser-known songs about his mother, painstakingly paints a similarly dramatic backdrop with more atmospheric brass, and they put their own stamp on the Nic Jones classic, Annachie Gordon." Neil Spencer, for UNCUT, said: "It’s an often exquisite mixture of light and dark, instinct and artistry, that honours both the power of old songs and the stoicism of the lives that shaped them. Rarely has the deep past sounded so stirring, or so modern."

Track listing

1. "Because He Was a Bonny Lad" (Traditional)
2. "Sad February" (Graeme Miles)
3. "Annachie Gordon" (Traditional)
4. "Luck Gilchrist" (Adrian McNally)
5. "The Testimony of Patience Kershaw" (Frank Higgins/The Unthanks)
6. "Living by the Water" (Anne Briggs)
7. "Where've Yer Bin Dick?" (Traditional)
8. "Nobody Knew Shew Was There" (Ewan MacColl)
9. "Flowers of the Town" (Anonymous)
10. "Not Much Luck in Our House" (Traditional)
11. "At First She Starts" (Lal Waterson/Oliver Knight)
12. "Here's the Tender Coming" (Traditional)

Hidden track: "Betsy Bell" (Traditional, arranged by The Unthanks)

Personnel

The Unthanks

• Rachel Unthank – voice, cello, ukelele, clogs
• Becky Unthank – voice, feet, autoharp
• Niopha Keegan – violin, voice, accordion, mandolin
• Adrian McNally – piano, dampened piano, plucked piano, drums, marimba, chime bars, autoharp, Wu-Han tam tam, Chinese temple gongs, Tubular bells, backing voice
• Chris Price – guitar, bass, ukulele, dulcitone, marimba, backing voice

Additional musicians

• Jo Silverston  – solo cello
• Rosie Biss  – quartet cello
• Mike Gerrard  – viola
• Andre Swanepoel  – violin
• Iona Brown  – violin
• Jenny Chang  – violin
• Dan Rogers  – bowed double bass
• Graham Hardy  – trumpet, flugelhorn
• Simon Tarrant  – trumpet
• Chris Hibberd  – trombone
• Adam Sinclair  – drums, cymbals, shaky egg
• Julian Sutton – melodeon
• Neil Harland – double bass
• Shelley Thomson – backing voice
• Jane Pollinger – backing voice

External links

• Official website – http://www.the-unthanks.com