Saturday

Backstage is organised chaos. It's one of the reasons the musicians like the Session so much. It's as much about meeting and talking to other musicians as it is about what goes on onstage.
I meet up with Shipcote whose doing a piece about a musician that's just turned up hoping to play, but without any real plan. You can read his piece elsewhere on the site.
By the time I get back, I've missed Yonder Mountain String Band, so I continue on to Stage 1 to catch the second part of the Oi-Va-Voi. It's mellower than I anticipated, though still pretty damn interesting. The band takes the unusual step of explaining the narrative before diving into the song.
It's not quite klezmer, it's definitely not drum and bass, what it is, is one of the best crossover styles that I've heard in a while.
I'm off to the Club Tent to catch a Festival Session. Anna Massie. Anna is currently the BBC Scotland's Young Traditional Musician of the Year. As seems to be the tradition this festival, there are two more musicians than I anticipate on stage.
Anna has been joined by Jenn Butterworth and Maireanad (Hope the spelling's right) Green. The sound is traditional with a distinct Celtic flavour. Maireanad is playing the pipes, but I can't suss out the region. I'm confident their not Scottish.
It's a good show case. Anna has been described as a star ascending, but she's entering one of the most populated areas of the folk scene.
I get back across site inn time to catch the last few songs of John Hammond's Stage 1 set.
Stage 1 switches to a distinctly US theme with Yonder Mountain String Band and their particular blend of bluegrass. I love the quaint oldtimey sound of bluegrass. The speed of picking is almost unbelievable, unfortunately I have a threshold.
As luck would have it just as I'm reaching that point, I have to leave for a John Hammond interview. Traditionally, blues interviews at Cambridge seem to be done by the duck pond. I don't know how it started; it's just the way it is.
By the time I get down to the duck pond, do the interview and get back, the threshold's reset and I enjoy the end of the set.
As bluegrass bands go, Yonder Mountain String Band are at the younger end of the spectrum, but it does seem to have kicked off a bit of a trend. They've also managed to record four, hundred thousand selling albums, including two live ones. On this performance, it's not hard to see why.
Keeping with the US theme, it's time to switch back to the Radio Two Stage and Laura Cantrell. This is relaxed country music with a distinct songwriter bent.
There's a nice balance of tempo and feeling in the set. Laura now has two great albums worth of material to fall back on. This is country as it should be, fresh and vibrant, rather than delivered to formula.
Laura has a pretty distinctive voice that carries a fantastic melody, a few songs into the set and there's a bit of a surprise guest, in the instantly recognisable hairstyle of John McCusker. It's these guest slots that help make Cambridge what it is.
There's a huge round of applause that greets John as he moves to the front of stage. It's a slow number that's high in emotion and it gives John the chance to really show the expressive side of the fiddle.
John leaves the stage as Laura launches into her next song. As it happens, it's the one that brings the set to a close. The crowd call for more, but due to time constraints they'll have to wait for tomorrow.