The Fenland Gent

There are loads of things I like about the Cambridge Folk Festival:

I like how it turns my local (charming) municipal park into a weird community of tent dwellers with daft hats.
I like how suddenly, for 4 days, there’s a half decent record shop near my house.
I like it that my friends, family and neighbours all go – which means I can go on my own and pootle about and still be sociable(ish).
I like the food stalls, (I wish some of them were there all year – especially the Northfield Farm Burger Van)
And I quite like some of the music. I usually get very excited about 1 or 2 acts that I see there.

This year I got really excited about 7 acts which means it was the best of the 5 festivals I’ve been to (3.5 times better I think)

The 7 acts were:

1. The Unthanks

Best thing I’ve seen for a long while.

They have the most beautiful voices and sing the most beautiful harmonies in songs many of which have arrangements that are brooding and melancholic and sparse. Some of these songs are “trad. arr.” but the Unthanks’ music does not find validation in some ossified folk music tradition. If they remind me of anything they remind a tiny bit in some ways of Kate Bush or Syd Barrett or Nick Drake in that they are very English but in an “other worldly” way. But they manage this whilst singing songs, many of which, are explicitly about “worldly” subjects like domestic abuse or working conditions for C19th women miners.

Maybe it’s a bit of a stretch to say they are like a Ken Loach film that somehow ended up being directed by David Lynch but I reckon that’s sort of the area in which they operate.

All the best things have contradictions. This was the best thing. Doubt I’ll see or hear anything better this year

And they clog dance and it makes them smile whilst they do it.

(You can buy The Unthanks’ “CD Here’s The Tender Coming” from Amazon UK here and from Amazon USA here)

2. CW Stoneking

A geniune made up authentic 1920s Australian blues singer.

There are some things about folk music that I’m not overly fond of – the obsession with tradition, the obsession with authenticity and the fretting about identity. The Cambridge Folk Festival is not especially riddled with this stuff (though it’s definitely there – the song “Roots” by the Show of Hands always gets a big cheer).

CW Stoneking is an Australian blues singer who performs as if he really is living in the 1920s or 30s but it’s a particularly contrived view of the 20s and 30s. He does not seem to be worried that much about authenticity and tradition and instead he has made up a brilliantly convincing act. Which I prefer and I wrote a long rambling blog entry here which sort of explains why.

(You can buy CW Stoneking’s CD “Jungle Blues” from Amazon UK here and Amazon USA here)

3. Carolina Chocolate Drops

Brilliant fiddle and jug band

The Carolina Chocolate drops are an old style string and jug band who play traditional music from Carolina. They dress up in outfits from 100 years ago (a bit) and they put on a highly entertaining show and most importantly they managed to be serious about what they were doing without being overly precious. Amongst their highly infectious and entertaining interpretations of traditional music they do a cover version of Blu Cantrell’s R&B hit “Hit ‘em Up Style” which was fantastic (You can see them doing it here).

You can buy The Carolina Chocolate Drops CD “Genuine Negro Jig” from Amazon UK here and from Amazon USA here

4. Spiro

In a way this is the closest thing you are going to get to Kraftwerk at the Cambridge Volk Festival.

Each year I go to the Folk Festival I wonder if I will see some mad development such as the invention of some form of Post Folk, where the weird scratched out atonal and discordant rhythms of old field recordings are reworked to create a new avant garde that tries to force folk music to look forward and not backwards.

This innovation would cause fist fights in the beer tent.

Never happens.

Never will.

However there are some bands that whilst I’m listening to them do make me think of other non folk bands. So last year in a very good set by Lau there was one bit which, to me, was like a balloon of swelling sound (err.) that reminded me ever so slightly of My Bloody Valentine.

I saw Spiro by accident. I bought an ice cream and only stopped in Stage 2 to eat it and ended up staying because they were so good. In the festival programme they are described as being minimalist and dissonant. I’m not sure I would go that far but there was one bit that made me think of Kraftwerk
But with fiddles.
Sort of.
Ok that is a bit of a push
But there was a song called Binatone.

(You can buy Spiro’s CD ‘Lightbox” from Amazon UK here)

5. The Burns Unit

Awesome Canadian – Scot supergroup named after Notts. Forest hard-man Kenny Burns*.

I loved this lot – they play big grown up songs about broken relationships and drink problems and decay and their songs seem to swell and grow and are laden with gorgeous hooks. Their LP Side Show may well be a contender for my LP of the year.

Also they were also a laugh which is important if you are going to sing about drinking too much and splitting up.

* I’m going to keep pushing the “named after Kenny Burns” line irrespective of what anyone else says.

(You can buy The Burn’s Unit CD “Side Show” from Amazon UK here and from Amazon USA here)

6. Imelda May and Sharon Shannon.

Stop being polite. Be more like Gene Vincent.

Prior to Imelda May and Sharon Shannon taking to the stage there was a band that played an especially polished version of Western Swing. People really liked this other band and they went down well, and I certainly didn’t hate them but I did start a fantasy that the ghost of Gene Vincent would come on stage and limp and stomp all over this bands’ slightly too polite ways.

Anyway a little after this Imelda May and Sharon Shannon took to the stage

I like Sharon Shannon a lot and Imelda May live is fantastic and here together on the main stage I would hazard the claim that they really did rip things up a bit, especially when, quite weirdly, they did a cover version of a Gene Vincent song. The crowd was tending toward being euphoric and thanks to the ghost of Gene Vincent I was ahead of them.

Really Ace.

You can buy Sharon Shannon’s CD “Saints and Scoundrels” (which includes a duet with Imelda May) from Amazon UK here and from Amazon USA here

7. The Wonder Stuff

“I’m 44″ says Miles Hunt. The crowd cheers.

I have comfort music. My comfort music is not particularly mainstream or obvious and others may not find it comforting (It includes the Butthole Surfers, Celtic Frost, Minutemen, Barry Manilow and David Soul). But it is music I loved at some point and still listen to occasionally. Amongst my comfort music is the Wonder Stuff

In the very late 80s and early 90s I really liked the Wonder Stuff and so did most of my friends. We went to see them quite a bit when I was a student. I grew my hair long. I had a laugh at the gigs. I still think first 3 LPs are good – especially Never Loved Elvis (which I think was the first thing I bought in the CD format).

It seemed a bit unreal that this band from 20 years ago were playing in my local park. I’ve lost touch with most of friends from 20 years ago and half of the band’s original line up are dead – but this is still comfort music and I comforted myself during this gig by drunkenly singing along with almost every word of every song and by doing the stupidest jig of joy at the start of Ten Trenches Deep.

You can buy The Wonder Stuff’s CD “If The Beatles Had Read Hunter … The Singles” from Amazon UK here and from Amazon USA here

It was these 7 bands made this a memorable festival for me.

BUT

Also worth mentioning were Stornoway (earnest, young, clear voiced) Coco’s Children (lots of them, infectious) Breabach (folky, swirly) and Mama Rosin (up beat and very infectious). I missed most of Johnny Flynn because of a time table clash though I like what I saw.
By the time Kris Kristofferson took to the stage I think the fact that I done about 35 hours of festival band watching caught up with me. I missed the start and struggled to get into what was clearly a good set. Which was a shame because I doubt he’ll be playing in my local park any time again in the near future.

(All the pictures are thumbnails. I took the pictures).

Various photos of the bands I most enjoyed on the Saturday at the Cambridge Folk Festival – Unthanks, Spiro and the Carolina Chocolate Band (and some Morris Dancers – not a fan but I liked the photo).

I took these photos of Imelda May about an hour ago during her set as a guest with Sharon Shannon. They’re a bit blurry but I hope they’re ok.

It was a fantastic performance. Sharon Shannon is always good (I love her band’s version of “Music For A Found Harmonium”) but with Imelda May they stormed it. I thought Imelda May was brilliant last year here at the festival but this may have been a bit better. I’ll be surprised if that’s not the festival highlight.

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