One of the great things about the Folk Tent is that it allows you to make unexpected discoveries. A couple of years back it introduced me to Penny Swales, more recently Drop The Box entered my consciousness, this year’s discovery were AMBER.

I first noticed AMBER long before they were due to play. Lead singer, Sarah, was sat back stage with a guillotine cutting up covers for the band’s cd single. Another band member was inserting the covers into the boxes. Such attention to detail is often a sign of the band’s intentions.

That they’d left it to date indicted that whilst they had other activities than the band, there was still a determination to succeed. Being a journalist, I took the opportunity to interrupt their work and blag a copy of the disk for a later play.

I also took the opportunity to ensure that a biog of the band would find it’s way to me. More importantly I found out what time the band were playing and resolved to find my way back in time to catch the set.

Being one of the last band’s on pitched AMBER against headline acts on the two main stages. Even so they made the trip more than worthwhile.

A Folk Tent session is not always the easiest place to make an impression. Time is short, the sound takes at least a song to get right and you have no control over the act that precedes you, so it’s possible to come onto an audience that been sent the negative side of neutral.

Fortunately AMBER were seasoned enough campaigners to overcome all of these. The sound, slightly flaky at the start of the set, improved as the band got going. It wasn’t long before you felt that the combo had got the audience on their side, and rightly so.

Youth is the future of the folk/roots movement and with band’s like this at their helm it appears to be on a good heading. AMBER may be more contemporary than some of the young acts that have played on bigger stages at this festival, but are no less talented.

With the right breaks and continuing hard work, hopefully AMBER will get the right results and maybe even a showcase session or better next year. If there were club bookers in the audience that night I hope they made contact with the band after the set.

There may have been a few raw edges that need to be polished. That might simply come from the need to please in such a short time slot. Regardless of this AMBER have a chance to shine in the glorious translucent of the semiprecious stone that shares their name and, fingers crossed will do so.

In their own words