THE Leeds City Varieties stage was set like an echo of the past, a rural village sitting room of multiple grey lampshades, decanters, stools, a table, wicker chairs, curtains, flower vases.

There was a piano too, a double bass and enough room for a screen for old family cine-reel film footage shot in gardens and by the sea. How Wild The Winds Blows blew through the old music hall stage as The Unthanks performed the songs of Molly Drake, mother of singer-songwriter Nick and actress Gabrielle, who elegantly voiced the recordings of Molly's poems heard on stage (and on The Unthanks' new album, Diversions Vol 4).

The first voice was that of the late Molly, from a recording of one her lighter pieces, accompanying herself at the piano, one of myriad songs and poems she wrote in the family home, not originally intended for the world's ears beyond, although taped by her husband. Now those recordings have been released, initially low key, but now The Unthanks have brought them greater attention, applying their North Eastern folk alchemy to Molly's cut-glass, precise, middle England songwriting.

A little clumsily, maybe even unnecessarily, pianist and musical arranger Adrian McNally commented on the perceived contrast between the northern, working-roots Unthanks and the pucker Drakes, and how Molly stood out from a class not thought capable of expressing sensitivity or feelings. He served the songs far better in his melancholic arrangements of the likes of How Wild The Wind Blows and Set Me Free, piano and double bass, coloured by clarinet, tenor sax and violin.

The night closed with grainy film of Molly raising a glass, and we should do likewise to Rachel and Becky Unthank for their latest Diversions project. Becky even sang a devastatingly beautiful rendition of Nick's River Man, as the torch passed from mother back to ill-fated son.