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Shrewsbury Folk Festival

Venue: West Midlands Showground
Town: Shrewsbury
Dates: 23rd-26th August
Website: http://www.shrewsburyfolkfestival.co.uk

Reviews

Joe Grint

Mike Rolland(See Below)

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Mike Rolland's Shrewsbury

I'll nail my colours to the mast here, I'm a big fan of Shrewsbury Folk Festival. This was my fifth consecutive year in attendance and I will probably go next year as well. I love the approach of the festival. It is relaxed, family friendly, has real ales and proper ciders in abundance, you can park your car next to your tent and has space to breathe within the west midlands showground. There is a dance tent for Ceilidh, the arenas are undercover (good or bad depending on the weather) and the selection of food is eclectic and far too enjoyable!

This year it it didn't sell out despite some less than transparent ticket discounting in the weeks leading up to the festival. This may be to be due to a lack of sure fire crowd pulling headliners (last year was Show of Hands, Kate Rusby and Richard Thompson) but there was still an incredible amount of great music on over the four days of the festival.

The stand out band were the Carolina Chocolate Drops for me. Incredible musicianship, a great show, but vastly engaging-delving into 1920'3/30's southern black music with passion and integrity. They used the effect of the black and white minstrel show in a positive way and were understandably questioning about some of the make up of the Morris dancers!

Shrewsbury always has something different on the bill. A collaboration you might not expect is the meeting of folk musicians and the music of Tom Waits but this was delivered, in some style by a folk super-collective that included Martin Simpson, Jon Boden, Roy Bailey, Sam Sweeney, Fay Hield, James Fagan and Nancy Kerr. They chose many songs from Mule Variations, including a lovely version of Hold On, an inspiring 'Take it with me' and a rousing version of 'Come on up to the house', Sung by Jon Boden with obvious relish and enjoyment.

Lucy Ward was great too. When the PA was working she performed songs from her excellent, recently released album, Single Flame with confidence and exuberance and when the PA gave up, Lucy just carried on singing, truly acoustic from the stage. A lovely moment from Lucy who engages with her audience with stage presence and flair rarely seen.

There were of course many other highlights Barnstar! were fun, Afro Celt sound system were loud and raucous and Eddie Reader was great as well.

Gauging the feel of the weekend from the survivors in the brick bar at the end of the festival, things were happy. A good time was had by all and most will be back next year for a little more Shrewsbury loveliness.

Mike Rolland

pic:Carolina Chocolate Drops