Saturday
Devon's Jack Cookson takes the Session further west and being a solo artist, also gives the hard working stage crew more of a chance to prepare for the next act. Brian describes Jack as folk-trad-punk. Sticking closer to the folk genre Jack has a contented smile of his face that sort of belies the darker undercurrent to the songs. In classic guitar, gob iron mode, he soon identifies himself as being a performer of no mean talent, even taking the time to thank the audience for being his biggest ever, before cheekily adding a 'so far'.
For the stage crew it's sublime to ridiculous time moving from Jack Cookson to the Varldens Band, well most of them. Normally featuring fourteen musicians from seven different countries, though with a solid Scandinavian core, this is Varldens light with only eight musicians on stage. I say only eight, but that's more than enough for a rapid change over.
During the course of their set it transpires that they are without one of their number any way as a visa issue has prevented singer Charhu Hariharan from getting here. There appears to be a good few in the crowd that had seen Varldens on this very stage the night before.
World fusion is not high on my list of preferred genres, I tend to like it when I hear it, but don't go out of my way to find it, if you know what I mean. I can see Varldens band being one for the exception list. They were just taking a bow when Brian told them they could do one more, a quick conflab followed before a rousing encore.
Next up are another Devon band, Velvet & Stone, who I have vague recollections of being a trio, but it's definitely a duo, fiddle and guitar. They had an EP, "The Storm" out earlier in the year and seem to be picking up a reasonable amount of airplay, which, judging by what I'm hearing is fair enough.
They do become a trio for their last number as they are joined on stage by special guest, Horizon Award winner, Sam Kelly, who being Cornwall based takes the stage further west.
Following his guest appearance, Sam Kelly is joined by his own band, The Lost Boys. As they set up, Sam jokes about moving into an apartment block in Cornwall and by doing so knocking 60 years off average age of those living there.
Sam Kelly And The Lost Boys perform an excellent set, there is energy and passion aplenty. The Session audience knows a good thing when they hear it and pretty soon you've got that band to audience to band loop going with both groups feeding off each other for an incredible atmosphere.
Before you know it Brian's on stage telling them they can do another one to the delight of the crowd. Sam opts to go with a song from one of his other projects, Changing Room, and being a Cornish speaker decides to go for one in that language, "Gwrello Glaw", much to the delight of the crowd, applause that turns to mock boos and groans when he explains that that roughly translates as let it rain, which did nothing to dampen the enthusiasm for the song.
Amy & Andrew from Steamchicken are next on stage, joined by Brian for a bit of blues fiddle. They start off with "St James Infirmary", one of my favourite songs and one that I've heard many interpretations of from female point of view and a gender switch, with soldiers replacing the young maidens as accompaniment to the coffin. Amy has a cracking voice and it's a great interpretation of the song. Brian departs stage and Amy and Andrew swap positions for a new song, "Turn back John" during which Amy accompanies herself on keyboard and Andrew provides a really delicate backing vocal.