Thursday
Was a little bit worried about the run to Cambridge Folk Festival, New Forest Show and the Olympics had the potential for traffic chaos, but as it was it turned out to be one of the smoothest runs I'd done in years. Plenty of time to stop of at Waitrose grab a cup of coffee and get the sun cream that I hadn't previously bought, not wanting to tempt fate, coincidently catching Rory McGrath doing his weekly shop.
Before long it was time to head to the festival site to pick up the passes for the team. The team is a bit light this year as Mark Winpenny has had to give it a miss and a bit lighter having lost the weight of a small child between us.
Our pre-festival meet up has moved to the Robin Hood from The Tally Ho!, but it's really all about the catching up and the planning for the year. It's a Cambridge Weekend which means that the mercury is rising along with the expectation.
Time to drop the gear off at the B&B, I know it's not the same as camping, but there's too much gear to have as well as all the camping stuff.
A quick drop off and it's time to head back to Cherry Hinton and get some banners up and around the site. It's soft under foot but not muddy(yet) and it looks like the site will stand up to it all with no churn.
The programme is the festival bible and is always the first purchase on site and then check in with the festival press team, catch up with the other journalists and the whole 'has it really been another year routine. One of the things I love about the Thursday is watching the site coming to life. It's one of the things that helps you feel like you've come back home.'
The Thursday now starts with three of the four stages active, with only Main Stage not happening. The Den starts off with an Open Mic Session, whilst perennial Cambridge Folk Festival favourites Megson doing the honours on stage 2. Megson are playing again later on in the festival so I find myself heading off for my first encounter of the weekend with the Club Tent.
The Thursday night in the Club Tent isn't hosted by any of the local folk clubs and traditionally has quite an eclectic bill on the Thursday night and this year is no exception. Later Naomi Bedford, ahab and BBC Radio Two Folk award winning Tim Edey and Brendan Power will be playing, but the honour of opening the stage goes to Polly Paulusma, who has recently released a new album, her third, "Leaves From The Family Tree". And it's to see her set I'm headed.
The last time I saw Polly play was at Cambridge five or so years back, when she was just on the verge of making a major breakthrough when she took a break from recording to become a mother. Subsequently she had a second child, but is now in the position to resume her recording and performing career and I was more than a little curious to see what impact that break had had on Polly Paulusma as an artist. I'm pleased to say, it's been a very positive one.
There is a lot less intensity about her performance, she's developed a more relaxed style, the social observation material that she used to write has developed a greater family and friends focus and it suits her well, developing a slightly lighter flavour, whilst still retaining a sharp cutting edge.
She's joined on stage by drummer/percussionist Rastko Rasic and bass player John Parker, both of whom appear on her album and provide a nice depth to the sound. Polly, herself, also appears to have developed a stronger line in between song banter, revealing more of the musician beneath. As well as the family and friend pieces we discover how tutoring English literature has helped inform her writing style as well as how writing a critique about one of the nuns that helped educate for her school magazine forced her into an apology.
All in all it was an original and entertaining set. Polly has definitely grown as an artist and here's hoping that she can pick up on the road she's already travelled and find an audience to respond to her more mature and at times lighter sound.
I manage to catch up with Polly during the short stage reset for the next artist, Naomi Bedford. Polly will be doing a signing session later in the evening over at the Mojo tent so all appears to be progressing well.
I decide to stay at the Club Tent to catch afore-mentioned singer/songwriter Naomi Bedford. Like Polly, Naomi is an artist that returned to music after motherhood, but has a few year's advantage. Her Americana, folk music fusion album of last year, "Tales From The Weeping Willow" drew great critical praise and having never heard her perform live before, she won out over Benjamin Francis Leftwich on stage two.
Naomi Bedford has an exciting and dynamic voice and it bridges the Anglicana /Americana bridge very well, particularly where her natural vibrato kicks in, but in no short order I think I've made a mistake staying with her and rather than risk compounding the issue by giving her time to redeem herself I make a bolt across the site to hopefully try and catch Benjamin Frances Leftwich before he finishes his third song.