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Bournemouth Folk Festival

Venue: BIC
Town: Bournemouth
Date: 23rd-24th March
Website: http://www.bournemouthfolkfestival.co.uk

Saturday

With the music on the second day of the festival not starting until one, I find myself in the rare position of waking up in my own bed, wandering down to the kitchen, sorting out breakfast and then able to write up the previous day's events written up.

It also means I can have a healthy lunch before heading off. More importantly having a folk festival in Bournemouth also means that I can get there and back on the bus. The Saturday will also see an expanding out of Bournemouth Folk Festival with a Morris Side being despatched down to the Square.

Catherine, aka Cath, Burke is a well known name on the local scene and increasingly further afield, has recently released a new album, the delightfully named "Exes, Losers And Other Men (Songs That Make My Dad's Eyes Roll)" until now she has been compering the acts in the Tregonwell Hall, Saturday afternoon sees her given the opportunity to open that venue for day two. Jigfoot get the honour of opening the Purbeck Lounge.

Day two of the festival is fully multi-venue, as well as the afore-mentioned main halls, Saturday also has a number of workshops, including a singing workshop that will lead to a Purbeck Lounge performance later in the day.

Cath is an ideal start to the Saturday, whilst her songs are relationship focused they contain a certain amount of dry humour and performed with a twinkle in her eye. She knows her dad's in the audience, which brings a smirk to her face when she performs some of her more suggestive songs.

She's recently returned from a tour in Germany and confesses that she keeps on getting her between song banter appearing in her head in that language. It also explains her need to illustrate the words with hand gestures.

She's joined on stage by a banjo player, pretty much throughout, though I managed to miss his name. The result enhances the Americana sound of the set. The majority of the set comes from the recently released "Exes, Losers And Other Men", though she does deviate to have a tongue in cheek pop at sibling Bob with a song about a wishing well they visited when still young children and who made the right choice with their wishes, all good natured and highly enjoyable stuff.

Following a very swift stage change, Cath returns to her role of compere, to introduce, Emily Barker And Red Clay Halo. Emily and the band spent the previous night performing at the famous, or should that be infamous, Square & Compass at Worth Mataravers. As well as its music, the Square & Compass is renown for its pies, pasties and cider and the banter between the girls would suggest that one or two of them may well of indulged, possibly a little too much.

Emily draws extensively on last year's "Almanac" and is a highly atmospherically charged set. Dark and dramatic at times, though it has to be said there were issues with the sound for the band that did detract, including the complete loss of Jo Silverston's banjo.

Emily Barker draws a lot on observation for her songs, often combining them with personal experience. That brings in songs from both her experiences in Australia as well as those from her travels in the UK. It's one of the former songs, "Pause", the title track from the BBC series "Shadow Line" that really hits home very hard.

Andy Cutting is, without a doubt, one of the finest melodeon players this country has produced, a fact that is no doubt attested to by his trophy cabinet as well as the adulation of both his fans and his peers.

Cutting is a consummate professional his sets are just about his stunning musicianship. His between song banter almost makes you feel like part of the family. Instrumentals are easier to dedicate than a song is, you often get instrumental sets with silly titles or based around an unusual themes.

Andy has two dogs, a cocker and springer, both a little on the mischievous side, the pair of them with personalities of their own. You're drawn in with the pre-song banter, almost like being down the pub with a mate talking about how his dogs had played him about and then you're into a series of tunes that bring the whole thing out in music.

I'd like to see more of his set, but there's also a trio performing in the Purbeck Lounge, Holika, that I really want to see. It's not even a coin tossing situation, I've been fortunate enough to see a lot of Andy Cutting over the years, Holika are just starting on their career.

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