Friday
Friday starts off with a complete disaster. The laptop that I've taken to the festival and backed up Thursday to decides to crash, panic time. Eventually I manage to get it to reboot, but
it's not recognising the USB hard drive so getting a back up of the backup before wiping down the cards, is not currently happening, me paranoid, nope been burnt on that before, lesson learnt, minimum of two copies before clearing down the cards.Fortunately one of the other members of the team is now awake and his laptop is desperately pressed into service and we haven't even had breakfast yet. Panic over and it's time to eat.
Breakfast now on the inside, time to head to the site to ensure that I capture the fiddle workshop, this year being delivered by Fatea Instrumentalist Of The Year, Sam Sweeney.
The workshops are one of the great things about Cambridge they have had some incredible musicians deliver them over the years, Catriona MacDonald taught me how to play air fiddle a few years back.
Sam is a natural teacher. He starts off on the stage giving a brief history of Sam before playing a couple of tunes, but it's not long before he's off stage and into the audience to ensure that people can see what he's doing. With so many different abilities amongst those gathered, he concentrates on tricks and techniques, how to use pressure, he goes down an absolute storm.
I think this was one of the best workshops I've ever seen here. The way it all just flowed. Everyone went away with smiles on their faces and that's what it's all about.
Next up for me it's LAPD for the MOJO Interview with Colin Irvine. lAPD consist off Liam O'Flynn, Andy Irvine, Paddy Gacklin and Donul Lunny- who between them rack up a couple of centuries of experience, predominantly with Planxty, but also with the likes of Patrick Street, Mozaik and The Bothy Band.
The thing I like about the Mojo interviews is how frank the participants are. There could have been a complete section just on the lies Andy Irvine told in his letters to Woodie Gutherie, in fact, now you mention it, there was.
All of the musicians taking part in the interview have grown up with the traditional music scene and have so many stories to tell. With the raconteur nature of them all you could easily have spent a couple of hours in the company of all of them as individuals and to more than prick the surface of all four of them- both individually and as a group in an hour was a great piece of journalism and an absolute pleasure to listen to.
I leave before the end as I want to catch up with the band opening up the Stage 1 this year, Korrontzi. It's been a little while since a Basque band have played Cambridge, so it'll be good to catch up on that seen.
There is a relaxed pace to Basque music, one that really suits the heat of the relentless heat of the sun. Whilst there is a definite bounce to the music it has a slow almost waltz like undercurrent, one you feel could sustain a party for hours rather than one that's over in a flash bang.
All the songs are performed in native Basque, which is very much in its own language group and that gives it an exotic nature as it's difficult to pull meaning from except by inflection, but clapping in time is universal and audience participation comes very easily.
The music is predominantly accordion and mandolin lead. Some of the traditional Basque percussion instruments appear to have been left at home, including a favourite of mine, which is like a giant xylophone played with a musician on each side of it beating it with sticks.
Korrontzi certainly brought a sense of fiesta to the yellowing parkland of Cambridge, what a great way to kick into the music on the Friday. Luke Jackson at The Den next, Cambridge always keeps you moving.
When I get down to The Den the last of the turn up and play artists is still on stage. The artist in question is an eighteen year old singer called Leila Jane that is performing some really exciting old timey music. She got a real gritty/gravelly sound to her voice that gives her songs a real texture.
The sound in The Den is excellent, the only issue with the venue is a purely photography thing in that the Indian style marquee bathes the venue in red light, which is more than a bit of a bitch though in no way a criticism of a venue that has rapidly become a festival favourite.
Luke Jackson has pretty much got the place rammed. Word and the two award nominations have really helped raise his profile. With a new album in the pipeline, the Cambridge audience are catching him in a transitional phase, gradually introducing his new songs into his set.
Luke has a great gift of being able to write songs about life, not just his own, but also in reflection, including that of soldiers going off to war. More importantly he is able to give those songs real expression through his powerful voice and not inconsiderable guitar skills.
Luke Jackson absolutely storms The Den and surely it's not going to be too much longer before he's back on the bigger stages and I don't mean his Club Tent performance later in festival.