Belinda O’Hooley is best known as the former songwriter and pianist with Rachel Unthank & the Winterset (now The Unthanks). Since leaving the band, the stark, haunting piano arrangements she brought to the Mercury nominated album The Bairns have evolved and migrated to her new duo with Yorkshire songwriter Heidi Tidow. These dapper-suited gentlewomen have an unconventional, wryly observant, melancholic and sometimes uncomfortable take on life; creating their very own brand of contemporary folk song together with a stage manner likened to Jo Brand meets Laurel & Hardy. 2009 saw them touring with Jackie Oates and Chumbawamba, plus some cool summer festivals including Larmer Tree, Beverley and Shepley. With their debut album Silent June released early 2010, these two are sure to break the hardest of hearts with music that lurches out of the abyss to steel you, embrace you, yet leave your emotions raw. “Splendid” Karine Polwart “…a dark secret in the serious world of traditional folk…” The Guardian ““Credit, too, to then-pianist Belinda O'Hooley...who provided ('The Bairns' with) two outstanding new songs , "Blackbird" and "Whitethorn"' UNCUT in 150 Albums Of The Decade, 141st 'The Bairns' by Rachel Unthank & The Winterset “…like Brian Eno leaving Roxy Music…” The Telegraph (on Belinda leaving Rachel Unthank & The Winterset) “From magnificent to spectacular…leaves your emotions hanging…” Neil King, Fatea Magazine “Piano riffs that can summon a tear as easily as a smile” Spiralearth
