Friday
Whilst the stage is being changed for the next act I bump into some more old friends back stage and by the time I've finished chatting I realise I've missed the next act.
It's time for Cruel Folk. The band have just released a new album as well have having a track, "Greenwood Tree" on the Fatea Showcase Session:Duos it's also the song they opened with.
"Greenwood Tree" is a song about a young couple that get it together under the greenwood tree. She falls pregnant so he murders her. In some parts of the fens and in the Forest Of Dean on the other side of the country it's called contraception, in folk songs and the rest of the world, it's called murder.
Anyway she ends up buried beneath the tree and haunting it for several hundred years. As the name implies Cruel Folk hang around in the darker corners of the genre. Even when they're writing their own material they explore that aspect, though not without humour.
Cruel Folk are Paul and Sean Holden and the next song was about Paul's ex-wife. It's about having a nightmare that you wake up to discover that you're actually still married .
The third song was about a priest being tempted into the ways of the flesh by a demon. There is plenty of pleasure to be had from the darkside. Cruel Folk have just released their new album, "Love, Loyalty And Other Lives". There'll be a review of that on the Fatea magazine site.
Cruel Folk are also writing and videoing a diary of this year's festival from the point of view of a band not booked to play, but in search of a gig or two as well as possibly a drink. I catch them after the set for a quick chat and found them hooked up with Jake Cogan. Jake's got an ep out, "Honest Mirror" that's co-produced by Cambridge singer/songwriter/arranger etc, Boo Hewerdine. A quick blagg goes down and you should be able to find review of that as well.
A Festival isn't just about the music, it's catching up with old friends and making new ones. I bump into Marina Florance, a musician local to East Anglia and like Cruel Folk and Ember was here for a session in the Club Tent, unfortunately her set was due to clash with The Levellers and I'm going to have to give it a miss. It's a shame because I really liked Marina's recently released, "Somewhere Down The Line" on High Barn Records.
I've already missed the start of Peatbog Faeries. It's a blessing in disguise. By staying at the Club tent I get to catch the Mawkin:Causley showcase, something I've been looking forward to since hearing their "Cold Ruin" EP/Mini album.
I'm surprised Mawkin:Causley are only showcasing this year, rather than playing a full gig on one of the bigger stages. Both separately as Essex five piece Mawkin and solo artist, Jim Causley and fused as a single unit, Mawkin:Causley they've been creating waves.
Without wanting to detract from their non Mawkin:Causley activity, it really is a classic example of the sum being greater than the two parts. Of course having the width of the country between the two sections doesn't help.
Jim Causley is blessed with the sort of voice that could probably coax a vestal virgin into a bed. Rich, deep powerful, baritone, it's hard to find a voice to compare it to because voices like this don't come around too often."
Mawkin do do vocals, but their singing isn't in the Causley league, but then not many people are, maybe the other Jim, Moray, but not many. What they do do exceptionally well though is instrumentation. In combination it's probably the best match since Mister Rolls met Mister Royce.
The music draws hard on the English tradition. The new generation of traditional based English folksters are every bit as proud of their music as their Celtic cousins.
The Club Tent is packed for this one. I think it's the youngest, most female first couple of rows I've seen since Seth Lakeman played the Club Tent a few years back. Good to see folk bands getting groupies.
Causley leaves the stage for a couple of numbers to give the crowd the opportunity to see just how good the instrumental power plant that is Mawkin really is and the answer, obviously, is damned good.
With the likes of the Demon Barbers and Mawkin:Causley, the future of English folk seems to be in safe hands. "Cold Ruin" should be out by the time you read this, it was available and was one of the most played disks played by the stage djs this year.