Thursday

As I walked across to the Club Tent, I noticed Rory McGrath and Phil Pope, of Short & Curlies wandering around the site. It's one of the nice things about Cambridge you often see the acts walking around the site just enjoying themselves. Rory got a couple of football related heckles, but no one bothered them. It's one of the reasons that many acts return, because they know that they can enjoy themselves too.

After catching up with news of the crew at the Club Tent, it's time to settle down and catch the vibe of the first act, Suntrap.

Unlike many of their contemporaries, Suntrap are a songs lead band, rather than tunes. Consisting of multi-instrumentalist Sara Byers, fiddler Mary Wilson and the powerfully voiced Paul Hoad, who also plays a pretty mean guitar, Suntrap kick started the 36th Charles Wells Cambridge Folk festival perfectly.

Suntrap write most of their own material and place it in a setting that draws heavily on the English song tradition. Excellent vocal interplay from all members of the band adds inflections into the layers of sound that the three of them are generating.

The crowd obviously warm to them quickly and it's not long before the band are feeding off it. Most of the songs get a bit of an introduction before the band dive in. The songs themes are mainly contemporary which not only provides a nice contrast to the more traditional side of the backing, but also allow the band to go off at more of a tangent than you can get away with with purely traditional songs.

The constant changing of instruments allow the band to get in more variations along the same theme, delivering a set that reflected many different strengths and emotions without ever sounding cluttered. More importantly Suntrap delivered the songs with enough of a spikey edge that allowed them to steer well clear of the tweeness that can sometimes slip into English folk music.

All too soon it's over. Forty minutes have just flown by. It's really refreshing to hear an up and coming band that is so song driven without taking it down the singer/songwriter path.
Next up in the Club Tent are five piece, Seize The Day. There's been a little bit of a buzz about this combo, but they've been given a slot opposite Short & Curlies so I'm off to the Radio 2 Stage.

I last saw Short & Curlies a few years back when they were known as Death By Country. In addition to Rory and Phil, the band also includes Sean Lyons on guitar and on this occasion Bobby Valentino, the man responsible for the Bluebells "Young At Heart", fiddle and mandolin.
The important thing about good comedy music is to be able to play your instruments and this lot certainly could. Some of Valentino's flourishes had to be heard to be believed, whilst Phil more than matched him with his guitar.

There are some that may have found both the language and the themes of some of the songs offensive, but if you're at Cambridge the chances are you're pretty broad minded, so what. The opening song made no illusions as to what sort of set this was going to be and if you were offended, then maybe it was time to leave and see Seize The Day on the other stage or simply grab a pint or two of your favourite tipple.

All the classic themes are covered, sex, love, drugs, trips to Scarborough Fayre. The main drugs song in particular had most of the audience in stitches with it's tale of a man's stash tucked away safely in the good book.

It's been quite awhile since this lot have been let out on their own, but it didn't show. The interplay between band members both before and during songs added to the sense of fun. Short & Curlies entertained, not just with their wit but with their instruments as well. I for one throughly enjoyed myself.

An interview with Rory means that I'll only get to see part of Festival legend Peter Buckley Hill's set, but Peter also plays a session outside the club tent on Sunday, so all is not lost.