Camericana
Until a couple of years ago I had assumed that Gretchen Peters was just another Nashville singer. I knew that she had written 'Independence Day' for Martina McBride but little else. That opinion changed at Cambridge in 2010 and I accumulated her back catalogue as fast as I could. That collection was not really needed for this set as the majority was taken from this year's release 'Hello Cruel World' opening with the title track. On the album 'Dark Angel' is a duet sung with Rodney Crowell, here she sings it with her husband (and keyboard player) Barry Walsh. The first non Hello Cruel World was introduced with the statement that: "It's not how high a song goes in the charts, it's how deep it goes in your heart", 'On a Bus to St Cloud' has lost none of its beauty after sixteen years. The set finished with 'To Say Goodbye' from 'Burnt Toast and Offerings'. I would have preferred 'Breakfast at Our House' from that album but I guess that I would have needed to see her Friday night set rather than the Saturday afternoon one for that. I am not too sure about the decision to play three quarters of a festival set from the current album and I know that I was spoiled in 2010 as her current album was then a compilation, but, when the album in question is as good as 'Hello Cruel World' it's hard to argue against it.
Cajun music has featured in every Cambridge Folk Festival that I have been to: Mama Rosin, CJ Chenier and Steve Reilly and the Mamou Playboys have all graced Cambridge's stages. Like others I know, I have a relatively short attention span for Cajun; after a few waltzes and a couple of two steps I am usually done. 
Zydeco, with its wider repertoire, can hold my interest a little longer but even so, a single set is normally enough for me for the weekend. Even though it would seem that that popularity of Cajun music has declined in the past ten to fifteen years (which can probably be traced to the rise in popularity of bluegrass over them same period - I'm sure there must be plenty of jobbing fiddle players who have swapped Louisiana swamps for the Kentucky mountains) Cambridge has continued to promote the genre. This year Lafayette's Pine Leaf Boys closed Friday night on stage two and opened up stage one on Saturday (where I saw them) before driving up Liverpool by way a couple of songs for the Brian McNeill session. Every year Cambridge throws up one act that makes me wish that I'd seen all of their sets - this year it was these guys. They do not just play Cajun and its blues infused cousin Zydeco, nor do they sing exclusively in French. They don't even try to blend other styles into traditional Cajun either. When Wilson Savoy, the bands main vocalist and accordionist, literally hangs down his accordion in favour of keyboards he plays straight Texan rock n roll and when fiddler Courtney Granger sings Mel Street's 'Who'll turn out the lights in your world tonight' it is straight, traditional, old skool Nashville country. If Granger tried to buy a bottle in my local off licence he would be ID'd for sure and I think he must have been lip-syncing!
My current "must see whenever they're in town or a even reasonable drive away band" is Bristolian country/soul band Phantom Limb. I once got heckled by a band for being a bit too obvious in my reviewing technique and since then I have tended to take up a position two thirds of the way back and to one side. This gives the optimum opportunity to see both band and gauge the crowd reaction. For Phantom Limb this went out of the window as I inched my way forward during the Unwanted's set and as their fans vacated the front of the arena I moved in with the speed and grace of someone taking the last slice of pizza - it looked fortuitous but had been planned for ages - to take my position front and centre. Like Gretchen Peters earlier in the day, Phantom Limb took the majority of their material from their current album 'The Pines'. This meant no 'Run' from their debut and neither of the covers that they have been recently playing (Dave Rawlings' 'Ruby' and the more obvious 'Willin'' by Little Feat). I'm both disappointed; as they are very good versions, and glad, as it shows that they have faith in their own material. On the opening tracks 'That's The Way It Is' and 'Tumbling Down' vocalist Yolanda Quartey was just moving up through the gears, the band cruised through 'Give Me A Reason' and 'Missy' before hitting top gear on 'The Pines'. If anyone had any doubt (and I'm sure many did, there were around ten thousand people at Cambridge and probably no more than a hundred or so would have know about them) then those doubts would have long gone. This is the real beauty of the band in general and Quarty in particular - they know exactly when to put their foot down. By the time they had played 'Last Track Saloon' and 'Prisoner' - the only non 'The Pines' tracks it looked like they were at the end of the set but there was one left. To keep with the motoring metaphors 'Harder than Stone' is where they switch on the afterburners. Twin electric guitars, electric bass, drums and over driven keyboards all combine to support Quartey who pushes her voice to the absolute limit without it crashing and burning. I'm sure they must have run over time - many did on that Saturday - but I doubt if anyone in the crowd was overly bothered.