Sunday

The final day of the festival began for us in the club tent at 10a.m. Eric Bibb held a blues guitar workshop. It was very well attended and kept many people dry! He talked about influences, songs, writing, guitars, tuning, strings, his finger nails, hats and much else. It was very interesting. He always talks about his 'tenor' guitar or his 'baritone' guitar, whilst most of us just talk about our 'guitar'! He detunes most of his guitars down at least one tone except for the baritone which goes down 5 to B!! He talks with such enthusiasm I'm sure he could read the dictionary out loud and he'd make it interesting! Seeing Eric Bibb meant that I had to do without my weekly ritual – the omnibus edition of 'The Archers on Radio 4 which they always broadcast at 10am in the main tent!! I'm very worried about Ed Grundy!

Lisa Knapp, who I saw at the Beverley Festival in June, was first on at mid day. She sings mostly traditional songs with guitar or fiddle and a small band. We weren't keen on her voice, rather piercing. Sorry, not keen – wasn't keen at Beverley either!

A new Irish band 'Beoga' followed and they were excellent – full of verve and good tunes. The bodhran player was superb and the girl fiddle player and vocalist far superior to Lisa Knapp. Should hear more of them in the future.

Tim O'Brien is a humorous singer song writer from Canada. He was accompanied by the box player from Altan and John McCusker on fiddle. He played some really good songs with interesting lyrics and held it together with some amusing asides.

Karine Polwart was superb. Her band were excellent and provided great backing and vocal harmonies. She writes lovely, if at times depressing songs. 'Daisy' is lovely as is 'The Sun's Coming over the Hill' which won the Radio 2 Best Original Folk Song award a couple of years ago. She included a couple of songs from her days in the band Malinky.

Current ladies heart-throb Seth Lakeman was on next and was as dynamic and brilliant as usual. He played favourites such as 'Kitty Jay' and 'King and Country' as well as material from his new album 'Poor Man's Heaven' which went straight in at number 8 in the mainstream album charts! His performance was excellent and he really got the crowd excited. One comment from me would be that I had a feeling that the songs were beginning to sound a bit alike, with the same 4 string guitar sound and chords, same fiddle sound etc. He's got to be careful not to produce the same stuff over and over again. The same might be said of Kate Rusby, (sadly not playing Cambridge this year) who I bumped into near the Indian food stall!

For the final evening session we moved into the smaller Radio 2 tent therefore missing Judy Collins, Richard Hawley and Joan Armatrading in the main tent, which was a shame, but that's the nature of festivals – you can't do it all! We particularly wanted to see 'Noah and The Whale' who have recently charted with their song '5 Years Time'. They were a little raw but great fun and played some great catchy songs with fun lyrics. The crowd loved them and despite their own reservations about how 'folky' they were, they succeeded. They are the perfect festival band.

The weekend was completed by another rousing set from Altan and the day ended for us where it had started with a fantastic festival closing performance by Eric Bibb. His set was quite stunning. His vocals are so clear and his playing so slick. Mr. Cool. Larry Crocket on drums and Danny Thompson on bass give him fantastic backing. What a way to end what for me has probably been the best festival I have ever been to. Mind you, I think I might say that every year!

My only regret for today, other than not seeing Joan Armatrading, Judy Collins and Richard Hawley, was missing an up and coming band from Immingham called SNAK! We met up with Keith at the end of the night and he told us they'd played a set in the club tent at lunch time. Well done lads. Great to be able to say that you played at the Cambridge Folk Festival! Sorry we missed you!

I shall miss Cambridge for the next couple of days. I love it so much that I get withdrawal symptoms, so Nicki's in for a moody couple of days from me with plenty of folky stuff on the CD player. We have made some friends here who we see each year. Everyone is so friendly – it makes for such a great atmosphere. I shall miss the Guinness tent!

Don't forget the Radio 2 Cambridge mini site. It's really good.

Jen's back on the train to London in the morning. It's been great spending so much time with her enjoying something we both love so much.

For all those going on to Cropredy, have a great time. I hope it's as good a weekend as we've just had. Bring me back a souvenir of some sort please! Enjoy and be 'Cool as Folk'.

Now, I wonder how David Archer's getting on with the harvesting..................???

Richard Papps
Richard Papps is a part time musician from Lincolnshire whose Myspace can be found here