Eliza Carthy was one the hardest working artists at Cambridge, well certainly on the Friday anyway. She was playing three different venues with three different bands, so it was no wonder that she didn't manage to find time for an interview. (Regular readers will have seen the interview she recorded with us earlier in the year. For those of you who missed it we have reproduced it as part of the Cambridge feature.)
First appearance came in Tent Two as part of The Kings Of Calicutt and pitched the and against Sinaed Lohan on Stage 1. Joining Eliza as part of the Kings are Nancy Kerr, with whom Ms. Carthy has recorded a couple of albums, Saul Rose and Dan Plews. The band have already been described in a number of publications as " One of the leading lights in the folk brat pack." It's a description that may not be 100% accurate, but it is fair to say that The Kings Of Calicutt are right there on the bleeding edge of folk's new wave.
The "Celtic" folk bands young and old have a stronger audience, as well as one that crosses over into many other genres. English folk still remains tarnished with a slightly naff image. It seems to have affected the psyche of a number of the bands. The may believe in what they are doing, but fail to get that belief across and end up perpetuating the myth. Until now that is.
The Kings Of Calicutt, both as a band and part of other projects have had a big share in breaking open the mould. True, they've had a number of advantages. They all come from musical families. They are young with plenty of sex appeal, girls and boys alike, as I'm informed, But without the talent that this band reeks of, all would come to nothing.
The band are strong, they play with an obvious love of what they are doing, more importantly they play from the heart. The set at forty five minutes was way too short and felt shorter. There certainly wasn't enough room to dance, hardly enough to bop up and down. The packed tent was well into the sound and with a few more bands like this there is no reason why English Folk music shouldn't take it's rightful place alongside that of it's Celtic Cousins.
The set was excellent, a solid mix of fast and slow incorporating a number of folk styles and songs from a number of different generations, and all as relevant today as when they were written. The between song banter confirmed that here was a band that knows the importance of relating to an audience and one that should and hopefully will cross over to a wider audience without having to sell it's spirit.
From there Eliza had to head off towards Stage 1 to prepare for her second performance of the night, this time as part of Waterson Carthy. There was time to catch the opening of Loyko's set, before heading off to Stage 1 sure in the knowledge that we could catch the Russian Trio later in the festival.