BOB Harris says their second album is "lovely"; Janice Long gave them a live session and 15-minute interview on her Radio 2 show in the early hours and Charlie Gillett champions them on his world music show.

The group receiving all this support is Waking The Witch, billed as a Leeds band but in reality comprising Rachel Goodwin from Harrogate, latest recruit Becky Mills, from Pickering, Jools Parker, from Keighley, and Patsy Matheson, from Pudsey.

Acoustic singers and guitarists in their own right, when they combine they are tagged "a female Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young", as can be heard on their self-written, self-produced new album, Hands & Bridges, released on their Witch Records label. On Sunday, the quartet will be in harmony at Fibbers in York

"We've stripped down the arrangements since the first album; it's not overlaid but more organic, so what you hear on record is how we sound live," says Rachel. "We recorded it in one of the rooms at home, nothing fancy about it."

There is no rhyme or reason for why Waking The Witch harmonise so instinctively. "The thing about the four of us is that it's not like we all sing high parts or low parts, we've all found our slot, and it just naturally happened.

"So far we've all written separately and we then get together and come up with the harmony parts over hours and hours, and that's where the satisfaction comes from," Rachel says.

Do not be put off by the name Waking The Witch. "It's a weird name, but it's actually a song title from a Kate Bush album, Hounds Of Love, and no, it doesn't mean we're all from a witches' coven."

Waking The Witch, Fibbers, York, Sunday, £5 advance, £6 door; Knaresborough FEVA Festival, The Yorkshire Lass, Knaresborough, August 13.

Updated: 16:39 Thursday, May 26, 2005