Sunday

Next one of the main festival events for me, the multiple nominated and award winning Ange Hardy, playing one of her last sets for Lament Of The Black Sheep and in anticipation of "Essteesee", her new album based on the life of Samual Taylor Coleridge.

Ange Hardy only discovered folk music a little over three years ago, but had released in a more singer-songwriter style prior to that. She has wasted absolutely no time or effort in immersing herself into the tradition and using it as inspiration for her own award winning albums and gaining a lot of recognition along the way, for not only being an artist of no mean talent, but also working hard to make sure that people get to see and hear that talent.

She starts off with "She Walks Through The Fair", a song that she recently put out as a mailing list exclusive and which heralds the direction of her forty minute showcase. If you've not heard her music, Ange is a multi instrumentalist who also makes use of a looper to be able to give her songs a live choral arrangement, it's not sampled sound, it's fully live, just looped back.

The Club Tent is pretty full and continues filling up as the set progresses. It's the first time I've seen Ange play the harp live on stage and it's definitely an experience I want to repeat, adding an almost magical experience. It also made me realise just how quiet the audience were being during songs.

Ange is an artist that lays herself bare both during the between song banter and through some of the more personal songs of which all contribute to sets that drift from micro to macro and really hold your attention. There's even time for a sneaky preview of "Essteesee", here was a set that definitely delivers and one of the few at the festival I saw from start to finish. I leave before the applause starts dying down and head back to Stage Two for a full blown fix of Stray Birds.

From the short set I caught of the Stray Birds yesterday I got the impression of a trio, that whilst heavily influenced by the old timey tradition, including the gathering around a single microphone aspects, they aren't totally beholden to it, rather a band that want to stick it right into the heart of a more contemporary set and I have to say it really works. There is a different sound on a fully acoustic double bass that the electric cousin can't quite replicate and it's working like this that it really comes into its own.

I raved about the three part harmonies when I saw this band yesterday and I'm going to do the same today. Sunday has really seen some great Americana at Cambridge and the harmonies from both Stray Birds and The Lone Bellow have been absolute class.

Having pretty much kept the promise to myself to see more of less this year, it's time for one of those spots where it breaks down, but not until I've managed to hear some of the Martin Simpson, Andy Cutting and Nancy Kerr.

Most of my encounters with all three musicians in the live arena recently has been part of bigger recording units put together to support concepts and commissions, I must say it's really nice to get to hear them again as a smaller unit, where individual contributions to the overall sound are much starker and more meaningful in the big picture. These are three consummate musicians and include two good singers amongst their number. Their recent release Murmurs showed just what this trio are capable of and this appearance reinforced it.

Joan is a name with long associations to Cambridge Folk Festival, Joan Woollard's husband Ken was the major mover behind getting it started and had a bench dedicated to his memory last year, Joan Baez who performed on Saturday a regular visitor and today it was the time for the return of Joan Armatrading for her first appearance as a genuinely solo artist.

I don't think I've seen Stage One quite so empty, a couple of guitars and a keyboard, not a microphone in sight. The set starts off as simply. Joan simply wanders on picks up her 12 string, has a quick joke with her audience and then dives into "All The Way From America. The next two songs see her switching first to six string and then to full blown electric for a far more bluesy number and reminder as to why she had been Grammy nominated in so many different genres,

After the first three songs, it's time to leave the pit, a quick glance at the program suggests it's an ideal time to go and get a curry and a beer. The plan's a good un, with a short queue at the curry stall, it's not long before I'm enjoying a lamb rogan and washing it down with a cider to the delicate and not so delicate refrains of Joan Armatrading.

The pace of the festival has got a bit more relaxed too. There's the start of the gradual thinning as some people make the early head for home, but the sun is shining and there's plenty more to come, starting with one of the acts that really caught my attention on the bill, The Punch Brothers.

Fronted by legendary mandolin player Chris Thile. With a repertoire that swings from old timey bluegrass, though chamber folk and into classical as well as all points between and some from without, this looked like an absolute treat for music fans and we weren't disappointed.

The standard of the playing through out was superb, importantly retaining life and character ensuring each piece really had its own personality.

Thile walked the stage like a check jacket clad tiger, laying claim to his musical territory, occasionally leaning towards the crowd to make sure everyone got their shot, whilst making sure everyone understood that it was all about the music.

This may not have been one of the most energetic sets of the festival, heck the double bass player barely give it a twirl, let alone headed off into the crowd, but it was one of the most enjoyable, there was even the almost obligatory gathering around the single microphone. Top stuff.

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