Co-Operative Cambridge Folk Festival
Saturday
Now it's time for a contrast and it's time for Joe and Megan Henwood, the current holders of The Young Tradition Award. Part of their prize is that they get to play Cambridge, an appearance during The Session is a bit of a Brian bonus. Brian McNeill often uses The Session to give the next generation of performers stage time.
They start off with "Lavender Man" a bittersweet love song so delicately performed. Megan has a genuinely haunting element to her voice that's as natural as the breeze it floats on.
This is augmented by Joe's sympathetic sax. Both only enhance their reputations with a top draw performance. They get in two long songs, before squeezing in a short final number, "White Lies". It's a beautiful way to end their slot, very moving.
I know I'm going to miss their showcase in the Club Tent as it clashes with the end of The Session, but I'm clearing down time to make sure I see their full show on Stage Two tomorrow.
Slide guitar, bagpipes and bazouki are a combination of instruments that rarely get an outing together. Still when they are being played by Martin Simpson, Lorne MacDougall and Brian McNeill respectively, you know anything is possible.
Martin starts off solo, performing a trio songs. The first song, "Will Atkinson" about an old musician whose music had taken him half way around the world, a song that could just as easily be about Martin's musical journey.
This is followed by the incredibly powerful, "One Day" a tribute to the son of a friend who had died tragically young. The song also refers to twin oaks which is based on the gypsy tradition of burying a child in the hedgerow with an acorn in either hand.
Martin finishes off with a song that is the only one in the world that has street names from both Scunthorpe and New Orleans. It's got a real bluesy feel to it. It mentions the street where he grew up. You can feel the pride in his voice as he delivers it.
Lorne MacDougall comes on with his pipes. There's a real buzz about him in Scotland, he's been described as the best piper of his generation, Had he not been up against Ruairidh MacMillan he may have won the Scottish Young Tradition Award this year.
Slide guitar and bagpipes work remarkably well together. As anticipated, Brian McNeill comes onstage armed with his bouzouki, his weapon of choice for most of The Sessions I've seen him play.
More of a surprise is the rest of the musicians that played with Brian to close his set from the night before. Ruairidh stands alongside Lorne, bring together two rising stars side by side, alongside them a third in the shape of Paul McKenna, from there to Martin Simpson, straddled by the two percussionist, Adam Brown and Ewan Baird, before reaching Brian himself. A septet of talent playing for one song and unlikely ever to be repeated again.
Next up are a Northumberland duo, Landermason, they played a set in the Club Tent on Friday night as guests of Cambridge Folk Club and genuinely didn't know they would be playing The Session until ten minutes before it started.
Landermason, Fiona Lander and Paul Mason, also run the BAA Club up in Bellingham, where they encourage other musicians so nice to see them getting a break.
They play folk with a jazz undercurrent and manage to squeeze in one song and an instrumental before their short slot comes to an end. The applause indicates that they've gone down very well.
The shift in size of band on stage goes from the sublime to the ridiculous with the duo making way for the Treacherous Shee, a combination of the Shee and The Treacherous Orchestra. The Shee have already been on stage so have their levels already set, Treacherous Orchestra haven't, it gives the girls time to make a joke about the blokes taking too long to get ready.
"Down In The Swamp" is a Shee song, the Orchestra lads have been desperately rehearsing it back stage, they seem to have done a good job as the mass band delivers a seamless performance.
It proves to be a one song set. Crooked Still are up next, for a bit of bluegrass. Whilst the stage is being reset, Brian McNeill takes the opportunity to lead the audience in a refrain of "It's a Rowdy Soul".
It really is bluegrass weather, it's hot and humid. Crooked Still have made the dash from Stage One to be here, such is the pull of the Session. It means they've had no chance to rehearse with any of the other acts so they're going on straight.
I'd miss them opening Stage One for the day so i'm really pleased to have had the opportunity to hear them. Well I say that, but it appears that I'd missed something pretty impressive even though I'd made the right choice.
Good bluegrass is tight, but busting at the seams. It's a deep seated folk genre that should sound like it can be played anywhere and Crooked Still seem to have got it spot on.
They've definitely got the audience on their side and left the stage to great applause. If the timings are right, I can see myself catching a full set later in the weekend.