Folk that

Published on Fri 16 Sep 2011

Last month I went to the Cambridge Folk Festival for the first time in half a decade. I can't believe it's been that long. It didn't seem to have changed a great deal, though I think maybe it was even more crowded than I remembered. There was a new little stage too, but I didn't really get to go there. In fact, I didn't really spend as much time at the festival in general as I thought I would. Justin Townes Earle was good on the Friday afternoon, and Frank Turner sounded as uplifting as ever, though you couldn't get near him. I'm definitely going to see him next time he's in town.

On Saturday I got there nice and early and signed up to play a 3 song set in the early evening. The queue was a mix of quite young and quite old and nobody really in between (present company excepted) and was pretty jovial. I went home for a rest when we were all signed up as there was a big gap before the music started and didn't really get back in until shortly before I had to be backstage. I did "The Ghost of Paddy's Night Past", "Watertight" and "Magnetic or Rhetorical" to general indifference, but I was up against Richard Thompson, so there was only ever going to be one winner there. I saw the last half hour or so of his set, and he really is quite incredibly good at playing the guitar. It sounded like there were about 3 of him a lot of the time. The oddest moment of the weekend was during his encore when he wheeled out Stephen Mangan from Green Wing to join in with "Who Knows Where The Time Goes". He was ok!

I was curious to see Pentangle, as my dad had the records (though I never listened to them) but after about 30 seconds it became apparent that they were totally out of their depth.  The sound was awful, the singing weak, the playing tentative. It was like watching one of the X Factor auditions that are put in for comedy value. It still makes me sad thinking about it now.

The rest of the evening was mostly spent wandering round. The Spooky Men's Chorale were apparently really great but were too quiet to hear from outside the tent, and I got to see a bit of Raul Malo, so he's another one put on and ticked off The List in quick succession.

Sunday was mostly spent around the second stage, which was never less than pleasant, though nobody really stood out as being great. I can't remember the names of the modern folky woman, and the modern folky man who went after her (he might have been married to Kate Rusby) but I'm sure you can imagine what they sounded like. Smooth voices, songs about mountains, songs about being a fisherman, occasional bagpipes (I might have imagined the bagpipes). I was quite interested to hear Caitlin Rose having been a bit underwhelmed at The End of the Road last year, but the same thing happened again. Perfectly good straightforward rocky country, but I don't understand the fuss. Her band had played an impromptu set in the beer tent the day and that was much more energetic. Presumably she was still infinitely better than Rumer was on the main stage at the same time though.

Villagers were also nice but not as jaw-dropping as you'd think given the amount of hype (though I have heard the album, so god knows what I was expecting)

and we went off to the main stage after a few songs to watch Femi Kuti, who was both brilliant fun and charming. There is something to be said for having enough people on stage that you have to count how many there are rather than just knowing by looking and I think that might have been true of his brass section alone. It's the kind of thing there is absolutely no way I'd ever go and see off my own back so I'm pleased that I got to experience it. One of the great things about festivals I guess.

The highlight of the whole weekend for me was Mary Chapin Carpenter. She was a bit of a guilty pleasure in my mid-nineties-liking-country-music-ahead-of-the-curve-and-then-going-off-it-just-when-it-became-cool phase but hadn't really thought about her for years, and never imagined I'd get around to seeing her. She started off the set with her capo in the wrong place but after that it was flawless and she played a lot of my favourites ("Stones in the Road", "The Hard Way", but not "He Thinks He'll Keep Her", which is my absolute favourite of hers). It was good to see some of the guys who used to be in her CMT videos are still around. The piano playing was really something too.

We didn't hang on for Laura Marling, which I slightly regret as I was hoping I might finally understand what's so good about her, but not to worry. I had a good weekend and hopefully it won't be another 5 years before I go to the Folk Festival again. They could do with not letting so many people in though I think.