It’s that time of year again when people start writing about that time of year, that is to say, the holidays, family, traditions and the passing of another year. It is a time ripe with nostalgia for times that seemed simpler, more honest and, in a word, innocent. In a cynical age, it’s easy to believe that innocence is just another word for denial of reality, but sometimes something so pure comes along that it chases away our inner Scrooge and makes us believe again. That’s what it’s like to hear the music of Rachel Unthank and the Winterset (www.rachelunthank.com and www.myspace.com/rachelunthank). Listening to this Northumberland folk music quartet (Rachel Unthank and her sister Becky, along with Belinda O’Hooley and Jackie Oates) calls to mind so many analogies—a field covered in the first fresh-fallen snow of winter, the call of a lark, the sound of a cool mountain stream. These images capture some of the beauty of the music, but not the power. How about this, then? Remember the first time you drank a really fine, single malt scotch whiskey after years of blended American crap? Ah, now you have it.

Although very much part of a tradition, the Winterset is not merely traditional. This is music for now as well as then. Unthank and company are accomplished musicians who make the music their own through bold and honest singing and playing, as well as through unique arrangements. A perfect example of this is the song “On a Monday Morning.” The melody is pure folk, but in the piano accompaniment of spare, block chords you can hear elements of both jazz and classical music. In an age when pop music and culture are all about image, it is a joy and a comfort to hear musicians committed to substance and to making music for its own sake. 

Flook (www.flook.co.uk), recent winner of Best Group award at the 2006 BBC Folk Music Awards, is a high-energy folk band of extraordinary talent. The band consists of Sarah Allen and Brian Finnegan on flutes; Ed Boyd on guitar, mandolin and bouzouki; and John Joe Kelly on bodhran. Their music is melodic and accessible, but also highly sophisticated with complex rhythms, virtuosic lines and, according to those who know much more than me about folk music, an uncanny technique and mastery of their instruments. When listening to songs such as “The Tortoise and the Hare” and “Flutopia,” you will be astounded to hear such a rich sound coming from so few musicians. Though traditional Anglo-Celtic to the core, they also add a freshness to their music by incorporating the sounds and rhythms of eastern Europe, Brittany and the Far East and Middle East as well as jazz.

If you like your folk a bit more subdued and with a splash of, say, The Velvet Underground, check out Pumajaw (www.myspace.com/pumajaw and www.pinkiemaclure.co.uk.) This duo, Pinkie Maclure on vocals and concertina and John Wills on guitars, loops and bodhran, who refer to their music as “folkadelica,” are the heirs apparent to bands like Pentangle or Fairport Convention, bands that are “conjurers” of mood as well as makers of music. On “Downstream” or “Lamentin’,” Maclure’s voice is dark and dusky and Wills guitar work at times hypnotic. Together they create an earthy sound that is bewitching. For those of you who love the long nights of December, you couldn’t ask for a better soundtrack for this time of year.