Green Man 2018 - a few thoughts and pictures.

If there is a discernible thread to this post then it is that it encapsulates why I like festivals so much. I treasure the ability to explore music I might like, a result of the one ticket for everything ethos, as much as the freedom to wander away from what it turns out I don't much care for and go in search of something else instead. As well as new music I quite purposely choose to see artists again. That even includes ones about which I was undecided on my first live acquaintance. Photography started as a basic aide-memoire when most of the acts I saw were entirely unknown to me at the time of observation.

I attend festivals as a free agent and this entirely selfish approach has a corollary; I am, in so far as it is reasonably possible to be, immune to peer-group pressure or the crowd mentality and open to recommendations as to music worth hearing from anyone I meet. I shall start with three artists that I had never seen live before. I could happily have listened to any or all of these for three hours straight...

Jim Ghedi, Walled Garden stage, Green Man Festival, 18 August 2018.

Nubya Garcia, Mountain stage, Green Man Festival, 18 August 2018.

A Hawk and A Hacksaw, Walled Garden stage, Green Man Festival, 18 August 2018.

The three that follow are acts/artists that I have seen live before and were more than happy to see live once again. This first is one of the artists of 2017 - 2018, both recorded and live.

Courtney Marie Andrews, Mountain stage, Green Man Festival, 18 August 2018.

Amber Arcades, Mountain stage, Green Man Festival, 17 August 2018.

Joan As Policewoman, Mountain stage, 17 August 2018.

Catching up. Live...

Earlier this month and in this post I expressed a desire to see a quintet of US-based female indie rock acts live across a pair of UK festivals - Green Man and End Of The Road. As I am at home in the weekend between those two festivals I thought that I ought to post a mid-term report.
The first good news is that I saw all three of these artists that were performing at Green Man in South Wales last weekend and conveniently, for the sake of comparable photography if nothing else, all on the same stage. It is also my favourite stage at the festival.
Here are those three artists in the order in which they played - one artist each day as it happens - and starting with the youngest but not an artist to underestimate.

Snail Mail is the work of 20-year-old Lindsey Jordan and she is originally from Ellicott City, MD. Début album 'Lush' was released by Matador Records on 8 June 2018.

Snail Mail - Walled Garden stage, Green Man Festival. 17 August 2018.

Phoebe Bridgers' album 'Stranger In The Alps' is something I have been listening to a great deal since its release by Dead Oceans Records in September of last year. For that reason alone I was delighted to see her added to the artists at Green Man this year. Then there were two duets.

Phoebe Bridgers - Walled Garden stage, Green Man Festival. 18 August 2018.

Last but certainly not least, from Richmond VA, was Lucy Dacus touring her 2018 album 'Historian' that is also released by Matador Records. It is true that she started the set bespectacled as, perhaps, befits a historian...
The pretence didn't last long.

Lucy Dacus - Walled Garden stage, Green Man Festival. 19 August 2018.

I was expecting a great deal from all three of these artists. To say that I was not disappointed would be a serious understatement.

New Music 2018 - Part 23 - Kitty Macfarlane - Namer Of Clouds

This is an album that, having seen the artist behind it live several times, I have been waiting upon for some time. It is her first full length and it follows on from the 2016 Tide and Time EP that I mentioned here. 

Kitty Macfarlane - Namer Of Clouds (Navigator Records, 21 September 2018).

This LP and the aforementioned EP share only one track and that is the EP's opener 'Wrecking Days'. This is the track list for the LP.

Kitty Macfarlane - Namer Of Clouds

• Starling Song
• Namer Of Clouds
• Seventeen
• Sea Silk
• Morgan's Pantry
• Glass Eel
• Wrecking Days
• Dawn & Dark
• Frozen Charlotte
• Man, Friendship
• Inversnaid

One track that particularly caught my attention when first I heard it live at North Dorset Folk Festival last autumn is Glass Eel. That particular festival is sadly no more but here she is playing it at a brand new festival that I had the pleasure of attending just two months ago.

Kitty Macfarlane,  Main stage, Beardy Folk Festival, 24 June 2018.

This is acoustic folk but with a contemporary and often environmentally aware twist but it isn't overtly political. It doesn't have to be; it is too well crafted to need that crutch upon which to stand.

A musical journey by proxy...

It's been a while since I did one of these posts but I have to say it is always on my mind. The thing is that it just takes a little something to get started. In this case it is the realisation that I am spending twelve days over the next four weeks at music festivals.

For a start that means that I will be seeing one hell of a lot of live music.  Another aspect is that I need to prioritise what I wish to see and part of that is to examine the possibilities in the context of what I already know. Finally, it needs a seed to grow into an idea and at the time I was fairly sure that this might be one possibility. 
I was at the smallest stage of a festival almost four weeks ago and saw this woman live for the first time; in fact it was the first time that I had ever heard of her therefore I came to it with no preconceptions at all.
Nor indeed did I realise that Alabama blues was a thing. If I had then I would have come along with the concept that I was almost certainly gonna like this. I would have been right, too.
This turned out to be a starting point. It has still taken me almost four weeks to write about it.

Debbie Bond, Apple Garden stage, Truck Festival, 22 July 2018.

Back home she normally plays with full band backing. Here it was just her and, on keyboards or harmonica, 'Radiator' Rick Asherson. I'm actually rather glad that I first got to hear this music stripped back and in such a small and intimate setting. It was pretty much how I imagine it should be, for this is essentially down-home music. Try 'Enjoy the Ride (Shoal Sessions)' here.

What really prompted me to start writing is another artist, again new to me, who has been plying her trade for a long time.
In this case festivals or indeed live music was not involved. Based on what I have heard I would love that to change. Again not a household name --- I suspect that this applies in her home country too.

Sarah Peacock - Hot Sheet Motel EP (27 July 2018, American Roots Records).

This, her latest offering, is definitely toward the rock side of things and is what initially caught my ear. I can't actually recall how this came to be so. I suspect it was via a Spotify 'Discover Weekly' playlist. This is a more acoustic take on her craft.

Sarah Peacock - Beauty In The Ashes Unplugged Volume 1 (12 May 2017, American Roots Records).

What bearing does this have on what I might wish to see at forthcoming festivals?
I have the opportunity to see the gamut of somewhat younger female US artists live in a very short space of time.  At this time most are still playing the smaller stages and I can't imagine another circumstance in which this might be possible.
Here are five such, listed alphabetically by artist, that have come to my attention:

• Japanese Breakfast - Soft Sounds from Another Planet (14 July 2017, Dead Oceans)
• Lucy Dacus - Historian (2 March 2018, Matador Records)
• Phoebe Bridgers - Stranger In The Alps (22 September 2017, Dead Oceans)
• Snail Mail - Lush (8 June 2018, Matador Records)
• Soccer Mommy - Clean (2 March 2018, Fat Possum)

The respective releases that have given rise to this see-live equivalent of a play-list are also there.  That might sound like a mission. In a way I suppose it is but it is just a splash in the pool when it comes to three 3½ day festivals.
I rather suspect that some of the highlights will be acts about which I currently know absolutely nothing at all. I really hope that this is the case once again. One of the very best things about festivals is the surprise factor. Truck Festival last month only served to remind me just how important that is.