Modern folk phenomenon The Unthanks are filling city halls and concert venues on the crest of the latest wave in their relentless success story.

So it is something of a coup that Ashford’s Revelation St Mary’s venue is to host the Geordie supergroup, who are enjoying airplay and filling column-inches nationally with excitement surrounding their latest album, Mount The Air. Melancholy traditional songs of lost love and life’s struggles are Mercury Music Prize nominees and Radio 2 Folk Awards winners The Unthanks’ on-stage hallmark.

But there’s nothing but excitement and laughter in the voice of the band’s co-frontwoman Becky Unthank – who shares the spotlight with older sister and fellow vocalist Rachel – as she looks ahead to the intimate concert on Thursday, March 5.

“We love to play big concert halls and more city, indie rock gigs but it’s great for us as a band to put on a different show. Smaller theatre venues suit our music; we tell long tales and the music can be on the melancholy side. You don’t get up and boogie to our music!” says Becky, 30. “I think I let all my emotion out in the music so that I don’t have to be like that the rest of the time. It’s sort of singing your sorrows away!”

The sisters are the daughters of traditional folk singer George Unthank, who is well known in their native North East, and they grew up clog dancing and singing. In 2004 the band started life with Rachel, who is older by seven years, at the forefront before it developed in 2009 that both sisters would share the spotlight. There’s never been any sibling rivalry between the two, says Becky.

“It’s very boring, but no! When I was 10, Rachel was 17, so I used to think it was great if she used to let me hang around with her and her friends. That was weird when I became an adult, to change that role a little bit, but we’ve always had a really strong relationship and we still do. We love singing together,” says Becky.

It’s a real family affair, as Rachel’s husband, Adrian McNally, is also the band’s pianist and producer. Generally a happy trio, three strong personalities mean they can sometimes divide and unite in different tag-teams of two. “We all love each other to pieces but we all have very strong opinions so we’re always debating things and it’s good to have that,” says Becky.

“There’s me and Rachel as a unit, and then there’s Rachel and Adrian as a unit as well, but quite often it’s me and Adrian trying to convince Rachel of something, so we take it in turns.”

Becky met her own husband Andrew, who is not in the music industry, while living in Manchester where she studied at university, and recently the pair moved back to Becky’s native Newcastle.

She says: “Rachel lives in the countryside on one side of Newcastle and I live at the coast on the other side of Newcastle so we’re about half an hour away from each other.

'We just want the people out there to hear our music'

"It’s so lovely, and it makes life so much easier with rehearsals and recording.”

They hope the new album and the outing in Kent this week will continue to grow their already-sizeable fanbase, and not only among the folk crowd but well beyond it.

“Music can sometimes be constricted by a genre – you think, ‘Oh I don’t like folk music’ or ‘I don’t like rap music’ or, ‘I wouldn’t bother with that’”, says Becky.

“I love it when I find music that I wouldn’t necessarily listen to, and I think there are people out there who would be interested if they found out. We just want people to hear our music.”

The Unthanks are at Revelation St Mary’s in Ashford on Thursday, March 5, at 7.45pm. Tickets had sold out as we went to press.

Visit www.revelationstmarys.co.uk or call 07548 679199.