Friday
If it's Friday at Cambridge, that means one thing, ceilidh. The earlier part of Friday afternoon had a kids ceilidh with Steamchicken, now it's the older one with a band I consider to be one of the finest electric ceilidh bands in the country, Blackbeard's Tea Party, when they're not just playing as an out and out bands.
Gordon Potts is caller for the evening, which means it's his job to make order out of the chaos and to get a significant number of dancers doing the same thing. Whilst I'm not big on dance myself, I always like to drop in on the ceilidh and by the time I get there it's in full swing, both literally and metaphorically.
Hands are raised until there are the right number of people in a group. It doesn't matter how experienced a dancer you are they always start with the easier numbers to get people into it. That said it doesn't take an expert eye to work out who are regulars and who are giving it a go for the first time.
Gordon shouts out the instructions, Blackbeard's Tea Party provide the oomph that gets everyone moving, there's smiles aplenty all around it's all looking a bit too energetic for me, need to find something slightly more chilled, I can hear the Den calling.
Liz Green is an artist that I've been hearing about for a while. She seems to have become a major influence on the alternative London folk scene, appearing on a number of records from other artists as well as releasing her own, well received debut "O' Devotion".
There is a delightful dirty blues tinge to her brand of folk, it works incredibly well with her highly distinctive voice which, more than a lot of artists I come across, seems to have developed a character without sounding affected.
The Den is running slightly late, desperately catching up the time that had been lost to the Jake Bugg breakdown. It had worked in my favour with Liz Green but payback time was going to come with Adam Beattie & Brooke Sharkey.
Effectively they were double heading the set. Each had guested on the other's recent EPs and that was more or less how they played the set. Adam kicked off with songs from "Songs Of 100 Years", the title song of which was dedicated to his grandfather that reached that ripe old age.
Brooke joined him for a couple of songs and I'm presuming the favour was returned in the second half, when Brooke became the prime vocalist, unfortunately I have to head off to June Tabor & Oysterband.
June Tabor & Oysterband have recorded two absolutely stunning albums with just twenty odd years between them. Songs from both and neither were to get an outing.
Both acts have improved with age and together they form an exceptional vintage live as much as, if not more so than on record. June Tabor's voice is still formable, I really can't think on any other artist that has maintained her voice so well over the years.
Both parts of the whole are political animals and it shows in both the choice of songs and the between song banter. June reminds us of the debt owed to the gypsies in preserving the English song tradition, before kicking into the band's version of "Son Davy".
One of the things I like about the Tabor/Oysterband combo is the way they've always built contemporary songs into the set, that sound every bit as good as the old masters.
This genuinely was one of those sets that you could proudly say, "I was there for that." Cambridge Folk Festival and June Tabor and Oysterband now that is a perfect match, here's hoping it's not 22 years to the next one.
Since I last saw James Vincent McMorrow(JVM), his beard has grown to an impressive standard and now seems to have influenced his music or, maybe, it's the other way around, whatever, the point is that he seems to have got an even rootsier sound, with a soulful and at times, almost backwoods feel.
He debuted at the festival last year when he played Stage 2, but right from the very first song you knew you were watching an artist that was more than ready to make the step up to the bigger arenas and still manage the performance in such a way that it seemed to lose none of the intimacy.
JVM works with fantastic melodies and when he harmonises with the music it genuinely feels like your spine is getting ready to tingle. He's playing with a decent bunch of musicians that really have a sense of what he is and what he's trying to achieve, it gives the sound that wonderful tight feel, but not so tight that you feel it's over rehearsed it all has a genuinely emotive feel to the whole event.
You can tell by his whole demeanour that McMorrow feels genuinely honoured to be here and is determined to give a show that suits the occasion, and he delivers on that. With songs from both his album and more recent "We Don't Eat" EP he really was highlighting why he's an artist that's definitely moving up the ranks.