Cambridge Folk Festival 2015 - Part 1 - Josienne Clarke and Ben Walker

I have to start somewhere with what turned out to be a very memorable long weekend. It was my first visit to this long-running festival and the first time that I have visited Cambridge that has been attended by good weather.
I haven't really decided how to group all the various highlights and so having mentioned Orkney five-piece Fara, who opened proceedings on the stages on Thursday evening, I thought I'd go with this, also from Stage 2 on Thursday evening.
It is a couple of years since I have seen Josienne Clarke and Ben Walker live and that was at The Bell in Bath. Nominated for the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards 'Best Duo' in 2014, they lost out to Phillip Henry and Hannah Martin.
They triumphed at the same, in the same category, in 2015 and here they are.

Ben Walker and his guitar. Only a few I have seen live play guitar in such a mystifying way.

Josienne Clarke on vocals.

We learnt a couple of other things too; Ben has a lovely singing voice but refuses to use it in public performance, and that the secret to being an award-winning duo is to have more than two members. In the picture above is Jo Silverston on 'cello and out of shot to the right Anna Jenkins on viola (both formerly members of Emily Barker and The Red Clay Halo).

Josienne played guitar as well as confessing to a miserabilist song-writing tendency.

Wonderful.

A live recording to assuage the January blues.

It is not the best time of year for new music, or indeed much else to be quite honest. Here is a live recording by a band that has exercised my mind much over the last five years or so but has recently declared hiatus.
Emily Barker and The Red Clay Halo 'Live at Swindon Arts Centre' in 2011 and recorded during the tour that followed the release of the LP Almanac is now available to download. I certainly love live music and thus also have a soft spot for live recordings convincingly done. This newly affordable recording possibility is one of the virtues of the digital world.

That is not to say that 2015 will be without interest: all four members are still very active in music. Emily Barker is playing Behind The Castle Festival 2015. There is however a great deal more than that to come.

Old Music. New Music. - Photos. Fires. Fables.

I know that, as Emily Barker and The Red Clay Halo embark on their tour and it is likely to be the last for a little while as the various members pursue their many other projects, Photos. Fires. Fables (2005) is soon to be re-released on CD and this news will please many people. It is in no way a curiosity simply because it was her first release as a solo artist. It still stands as an incredible record.
I am one of the lucky ones: I snapped up the very last copy at the Rough Trade pop-up shop at End Of The Road Festival back in 2009 - and I knew absolutely nothing at all about the artist until this point - about ten minutes after I heard her play live. When music does that to me then it really matters; it is history in the making.

Emily Barker and The Red Clay Halo headlined North Dorset Folk Festival in 2013.

New Music 2014 - Part 37 - Nothing Can Bring Back The Time

The best way I can start this is to confess that every EP and album that Josienne Clarke and Ben Walker have released is, at least in my opinion, rather wonderful. 
 The latest release 'Nothing Can Bring Back The Hour' is equally so.

I think that, having listened all the way through a fair few times now, it marks a change of sorts. This is not a shock rather some kind of revelation. The familiar themes and the virtuosity remain intact, indeed enhanced. The music is not quite the same and perhaps the title of the LP is a reflection of that. Some of it sounds older and some of it sounds more modern yet still the resonance of the music is intact, albeit that the influences are wider. Released by independent Folkroom Records, 'Nothing Can Bring Back The Hour' is beyond good.

I haven't mentioned any songs specifically and that is for a good reason - I can't decide on a favourite and there certainly aren't any that I would rule out of consideration. It has a far wider range of backing musicians, including Josienne on recorders, saxophone and flute (I have to admit that I previously failed to recognise her instrumental contribution), Ben on most things with strings and on some tracks Jim Moray (piano). Also appearing are Anna Jenkins (violin) and Jo Silverston (viola and 'cello) [both long time members of The Red Clay Halo] amongst many others equally noteworthy. It does not fall into the trap of orchestral folk - the instruments that are deployed at any given time are economical and for a very good reason.
I for one would not wish to predict the future. Their first release that came to my attention was this in 2012:

It is still available on CD. Some examples have the printing in black or in white instead.

North Dorset Folk Festival 2013 - Part 3

I was sold on North Dorset Folk Festival 2012 pretty much from the get-go and was quite happy to buy a ticket for 2013 without knowing any artists - just as I do for End of The Road Festival (EOTR) - I simply trust that it will be excellent and I have never been let down yet. On the other hand, when I discovered that Emily Barker and The Red Clay Halo was to headline NDFF 2013 I could hardly believe what I was reading - and I checked that it wasn't 1 April. It certainly wasn't, and I wasn't dreaming about it either. I first saw them, previously quite unknown to me at EOTR 2009 and was totally taken. Here is that occasion:

No drummer back then. The kit was there for other bands on the stage to use as required.

Other than that the line up remains the same. Here is how it turned out at Marnhull Village Hall on 26 October.

L - R (in both pictures): Anna Jenkins, Jo Silverston, Emily Barker and Gill Sandell.
  

Emily Barker and Gill Sandell in an acoustic guitar and piano accordion duel.
It is easy to forget in the seamless sound the individual contributions of each member.

Anna Jenkins on fiddle.
  

Nostalgia really doesn't get much better than this.
  

If percussionist Nat Butler thought that he was not going to be mentioned on account of his very recent inclusion in the Red Clay Halo then that is not so.

Percussion and bass underpin much of Dear River. Jo Silverston on electric bass.

That two of the artists have also recently released music as side-projects is very worthy of note. Gill Sandell's second solo album, Light The Boats, in September 2013 and the second after Tarry Awhile (2010 and which is also excellent). Emily Barker also participates in London-based collective Arctic Circle that released its first five-track EP 'Lantern Waste' today. Here, taken from it, is 'Hushabye Mountain' to stream and the EP to buy. I have to say that I have a particular fondness for track 4 ' Unreasonable Dreams'.