A Ramble Round Cherry Hinton

Sunday and the sun is shining again. Another walk down to the Unicorn for breakfast before striking camp. There's enough time to get into the Sunday papers before checking in at the press caravan to see what's happening.

A juggling workshop has already started at Stage 2, why oh why can't people just leave things alone. Apart from the site is just coming to life. The queue at the crepe stall is surprisingly long whilst the Guinness Tent has it's first customers.

The music proper starts at mid-day. Choices are The London Community Gospel Choir or slightly later on Stage 2 The Old Rope String Band who are doing the children's concert.

The children's concert is another Cambridge tradition. The first act on Stage 2 on the Sunday is for the kids. Depending on whose appearing it can have cult followings. The year Toni Arthur played, attendance, whether or not you had children was virtually mandatory. A couple of year's later, The Singing Kettle brought in quite an audience. This year lacked compulsion.

At the press caravan I was informed there was a reception for local dignitaries and people from the Canadian High Commission. The Canadians were there because representatives from Quebec were involved in promoting one of the acts at the festival, La Bottine Souriante(Which literally means the smiling ankle-boot).

Faced with a stark choice of gospel or drinks with the Commissioner, drinks won. The Canadian attitude to music is quite interesting and discussed elsewhere in this publication. Fortunately by the time this was over, The LCGC were pretty close to finishing their set and to be fair it was to a reasonably full audience.

Don't get me wrong, I think the LCGC are a very talented singing collective. I can understand why they are being used increasingly as backing on other people's records and why their own records are increasing in popularity. I have even been known to listen to it on rare occasions, when in a certain mood. My problem here is that I don't like groups that don't accept members purely on sectarian grounds. I have no objection to praise singing of whatever faith is doing it. There are some great praise songs from a variety of sources.

If you want to discriminate of sectarian grounds then that's ok in a single faith environment. The Cambridge Folk Festival is multi-faith and maybe the LCGC set should have reflected that. It is possible to do Gospel style tunes without putting religion at it's core. As one disgruntled person said as I passed, "I didn't come here to get preached at". Again crowd reaction would seem to have put us in a minority and as I said earlier, The LCGC are highly talented singers, maybe I'm just over reacting.

Bluegrass next with Laurie Lewis, who seemed slightly disorientated by the size of Stage 1. The more intimate Stage 2 seemed to suit her better. That said, she was soon in her stride. One of the highlights of the act was an Appalachian Clog dancing display that really got the audience going. The set was good, but I felt her earlier set was better.

Kate Rusby, with Tony McManus and The Battlefieldband's John McCusker were next up. English folk music is enjoying quite a revival now. It's Celtic cousin has become established in the mainstream and judging by this English folk could start going the same way.

There's an old adage that sex sells, and judging by the lyrical content of some of the songs, there's a chance that it could sell a lot. A couple of traditional songs put out as singles, a few bans and we're there.

Kate's set was well crafted. All the songs, whether about sex or not, were delivered with true verve. The new wave of folk has another challenger for it's figurehead. Kate Rusby is an artist that brings some style to a genre that until recently was in danger of losing touch with generation x.

Now you can see why crustie man and nose ring woman are being attracted back to folk music. Through the likes of the Levellers and Rev Hammer they started getting a taste for the more modern forms and that lead to the discovery that there was something in the purer form for them. It's not about jumpers and sea shanties, it's about being unemployed, being in love and sleeping with soldiers. Issues that are as relevant today as when they were written a couple of hundred years back, almost frighteningly so.

In Kate Rusby and her cohorts and peers the vehicles for delivering those songs and those messages are in place. For me this was one of the highlights of the festival and Kate Rusby can only continue growing in stature.

Sunday Continued...