Saturday
From the mass ranks of the Session opening the contrast to the first act couldn't have been a bigger contrast as Brian introduces Siobhan Miller for what is I think her second, maybe third appearance at the Session over the years.
She has music in her blood, being the daughter of Brian Miller and has performed with a number of artists over the year, including being a quarter of Salt House who released the current Fatea Debut Album of the Year "Lay Your Dark Low", more importantly she has her debut solo album, "Flight Of Time" due out very soon.
Siobhan is at the festival helping out at The Hub doing song workshops and helping out with the Hub Band project, she's also decided that she's going to perform unaccompanied, mind you when you've got a voice like Siobhan Miller, it's an easier decision than it would be for most.
As anticipated the impact of her song, is nothing short stunning. The only disappointment is that her other commitments at the festival keep her down to just a single song, but it did make the hairs on the back of the neck twitch.
Feis Rois are an organisation with a purpose of encouraging an interest in traditional music amongst the young and every year bring a group of musicians to Cambridge to perform at the Scottish Showcase and play a few songs and tunes in the Brian McNeill Session. Current holder of the Radio Two Young Folk Award Mischa Macpherson, who will be playing later with her own trio, has played the festival several times as part of Feis Rois.
This being a Commonwealth Games year has seen Feis Rois reach out to its international counter parts and include musicians from Australia, New Zealand and Canada. Once again the result has been a group that seem to belie their youth and produce performances of older players. That said most of the young band have already got years of practice and performance behind them.
Unusually the six piece have as many harpists as fiddle players this year, ably supported with pipes and guitar. One of the young harpist starts off at the microphone to deliver a fresh and clear Gaelic folk song that I found myself wishing I could understand.
Whilst the names performing as Feis Rois continue to change, the quality of the musicians seems to be remain very much out of the top draw. I often wonder why there isn't something in place for the various traditional musical identities of the English regions.
Trios seem to be a big thing at the festival this year. I think during the course of the fiftieth festival, they are giving duos a run for their money. Sarah Jarosz will be performing as part of a trio during the rest of the festival, but for the session decides to go solo, just her and her banjo.
As you can probably tell by the instrumentation we've moved away from Celtic and into bluegrass and old timey and at just twenty three Jarosz is already recognised as a modern mistress of the genre with three albums and a couple of Grammy nominations.
I think hearing her on her own really does underline what a talent Sarah Jarosz is, you can easily imagine her performing on a porch with a few friends, just enjoying her music and she appears to be that relaxed and comfortable performing to a large group of strangers, have definitely penciled in a set with her trio later in the festrival.
The Young Folk Award winning Mischa Macpherson trio actually start off their set as a duo with Mischa joined by guitarist, Innes White, unfortunately the trio's pipes and whistle player, Conal McDonagh has been taken ill and was unable to attend. Subsequently the remaining two would be joined by an award winning fiddle player to provide additional texture to the sound and yes, once again, I managed to miss the name...
From the off it was easy to see why the award went in the direction of this band. There is such fluidity in the performance, regardless of whether playing a tune or a song, they come across as fresh and natural as a mountain breeze, drawing on that musical memory of years of performing.
Mischa, as group leader finds herself as the prime contact between band and audience. It's here and only here that a small bit of uncertainty reveals its self, but much can also be said with an endearing smile, a comical hiding behind the hands and just announcing the next song. Brian McNeill is right, at least in terms of music, the future is bright, very bright indeed.
Following Mischa's departure from the stage, guitarist Innes White remained on stage to be joined by fiddle player Matt Tighe, who lead the mass ranked start of the session. Whilst the two musicians have played together before, it's been a while and there had been a frantic rehearsal just prior to going on.
There was a real intensity in the performance, a lot of eye contact and validation during the playing. This was two young musicians that were capable of not only winging it, but winging it to the extent that a member of the public tapped me on the shoulder and asked if I knew if this duo had an album out.
I always find it interesting that extra distance folk artists are supposed to go, I can't think of any other genre where the performers are almost expected to give minute details about the sets they've just performed, I really found it interesting that Matt would ask the question 'do you really want to know?'
What was important was the intensity of the playing. To use the well worn cliche, this was cut tension with a knife territory and totally spell binding. Folk is a genre where artists for impromptu groups and trios etc for short projects, keep an eye/ear out for Matthew Tighe and Innes White on their respective paths.