By their own admission they have “one of the worst names in the business”, one acquired 20 years ago when Sean Cooney, Michael Hughes and David Eagle were underage teenage drinkers who had stumbled across folk music in a Teesside pub and thought they’d give it a go with an a cappella sea shanty. The subsequent ascent in folk circles of the Young’uns owes much not only to their sturdy vocal harmonies – they still sing mostly unaccompanied – but to the humanitarian sensibility of Cooney’s songwriting. He specialises in unsung heroes, people who live out the values of bravery and compassion without fanfare.
On this eighth album, the title track tells how handwritten notes tied to a Wearmouth bridge by Paige Hunter have dissuaded despairing people from suicide. Elsewhere, there are tributes to Jack Merritt, who worked in prisoner rehabilitation before his murder in the London Bridge terror attack, trauma surgeon David Nott, and Lyra McKee, the young journalist killed during a 2019 Derry riot.
There is passion and drama, but the songs are never cloying or mawkish. Musically, the trio are becoming more adventurous, their robust singing offset by some deft string arrangements by Jon Boden, while Karine Polwart, Lucy Farrell and Anne Lamb voice those tiny notes. Inspiring.
