Friday
I have to give their last song a miss in order to get back to Main stage for folk supergroup Under One Sky. I won't go into who is in the band or it would take up the rest of the page. Check the band out on their page for the name list.
It's the first piece Cambridge Folk Festival has commissioned, albeit jointly with Celtic Connections. It's got sponsorship from all over the place and is a celebration of the links between the two festivals and the links between the various Celtic and English folk musics.
The concept piece was put together by John McCusker with a lot of the words provided by John Tamms.
This was the first time it had been performed in England. It's difficult to describe such a varied piece, except to say, it was all delivered to a high standard and drew on the emotions of the audience.
A snapped string on the bass delayed part of the performance and it took a little while to recover.
I'm glad folk music has the confidence to do this sort of thing. Without commissions the ensemble side of the music would simply die.
The problems mean that the whole thing over runs, fortunately the next band is quite small. Well small in terms of number, huge in stature, it's Show Of Hands.
Arguably the most popular folk band in Britain and recently voted the greatest ever Devonians, a fact they ridiculed mercilessly during the course of the set.
Steve Knightley and Phil Beer are joined on stage by bass player Miranda Sykes. The opening numbers include "No Woman No Cry" and "The Flood", played as a moving tribute to those recently impacted.
There's a good bit of banter between Phil and a contingent from Cornwall in the crowd, "Cousin Jack" is played by way of sop.
The band performs a greatest hit compilation of their recent hits. There's good humour, moments of poignancy, basically everything that's gained them their reputations as folk’s boy wonders.
They even arrange a sing-a-long for the audience. These guys are proper stars. Miranda gives the music an extra dimension and one that means the whole thing is as fresh as a new born lamb. There is a demand for an encore, but late running and order prevents this from happening.
The change to Steve Earle is a quick one. It's just going to be him and his guitar, but the presence of a second microphone suggests that there's going to be a guest artist later, probably Allison Moorer.
Despite being one man and a guitar, Steve gives full vent to his brand of American folk with a punk attitude.
Some of it really rocks, including his signature song, "Copperhead Road". Other songs are far more reflective and thought provoking. The Gulf Wars come in for quite a bit of stick and does social injustice.
The last time Steve was here, he had short hair and was clean shaven, this year he looks like he could give Seasick Steve a run for his money.
Both occasions saw him completely dominate the stage as a solo artist. The only other person with that sort of stage presence is our own Richard Thompson.
I wanted to see the whole of Steve Earle's set, but I also wanted to see what Belgium Band Jaune Toujours were about as well.
What they're about is a fusion of styles, ska, Latin, Balkan, balls and brass, a good time party band with a folk bent.
They've been exposed to the multi-cultural experience and stolen the good bits from most of them, fusing it into something unique.
They also use a strange mic set up, a standard mic for most of the songs, but an amped up megaphone to add vocal effects for certain phases.
The stage had life aplenty, movement clapping, bouncing, boign boign boign. Certainly the crowd at the front were lapping it up, I wasn't totally sure.
The band madness that made up Friday evening for me rumbled on. I cut Juane Toujours short and head back to Main stage for the Waterboys.