A two year Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) funded research project, "Performing Englishness in New English Folk Music and Dance", research released this week claims that the recent resurgence in English Folk music and dance has had a meaningful impact on English identity. It goes on to detail a "vibrant and expanding folk scene that is both rooted in English cultural traditions and open to other influences"...which brings me onto this week's musical offering.
The Unthanks are an English folk group from Northumberland, who made their debut performance at Towersey Village Festival in August 2004, and on May 11th 2005, launched their debut album, Cruel Sister at Holmfirth Folk Festival. Two further albums, numerous awards and an appearance on the Jools Holland Show have followed. "The Testimony of Patience", originally sung by Frank Higgins in 1969, is a song is based on the testimony of a young girl called Patience to a government enquiry in 1842 into children working in coal mines:
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