Marnhull Acoustic Sessions 2014

Parts of Somerset and Dorset are indeed flooded, with no end to the deluge in sight, but please don't think that the rich musical life of both counties has suddenly vanished. Far from it indeed and the new year of Marnhull Acoustic Sessions starts this coming Sunday with two fine singer-songwriters as a double-headline show and I have seen both live just once before.
Tom James is from Falmouth, Cornwall and played at North Dorset Folk Festival 2012. To choose a cover here, rather than one of his own songs, might seem a strange choice. To cover Bonnie Raitt is a mark of bravery...

Can't Make You Love Me.

      
Pip Mountjoy is from Richmond, North Yorkshire and I first saw her live at Deershed Festival, near Thirsk and also in North Yorkshire, in 2012. She was "down south" last June, performing on the BBC Introducing Stage at Glastonbury Festival.

The Killing Kind.

She has released two EPs, 'Louisiana' and 'My Skeleton' and this track is not on either of them. This Sunday should be very special.

Tickets are £6 + £0.60 fee booked here with instant e-delivery (no need to worry about the post) and £7 on the door at Marnhull Village Hall, if any are still available at this most intimate of venues.
On Saturday 25 October 2014 it will also be the home of the third North Dorset Folk Festival and you wouldn't want to miss that...
There are only a couple of festivals for which I will book a ticket on trust, with no prior knowledge of the line up: End Of The Road Festival is one and this another.

New Music 2014 - Part 6 - Harriet Jones

Barely a week after I discovered one new act from Plymouth (WHOANOWS) as I was listening to Kathryn Tickell's show, on Amazing Radio this evening, along came this statement of intent from 20-year-old singer-songwriter Harriet Jones also from Plymouth.

The track Dealin' Man Blues is released as a single today and is as good a slice of soul-blues as I have heard in some time. It is remarkable for, amongst other things, the minimal accompaniment to her vocal and that works because it simply doesn't need more. Another one to watch in 2014 and I would love to see her play live.

If I were to meet her I should be very wary: If I am reminded by this of any one other song in particular then it is a cautionary tale, with a moral ending - 'The Ballad of Frankie Lee and Judas Priest' and I'm not convinced that I would come out on the right side of this.
It may seem a curious comparison but it works for me. What she might conjure up next is anyone's guess but hers. I'm fascinated by the possibilities.

New Music 2014 - Part 5 - Arc Iris

'Singing So Sweetly' is the début single from band Arc Iris, the new project of former Low Anthem member Jocie Adams. Here it is:

The self-titled album Arc Iris will be released by Bella Union in the UK on 31 March and by Anti- Records (North America) on 1 April. Arc Iris will play in Bristol, UK, at The Louisiana on 6 May and this doesn't sound remotely like her former band. To say that it is eclectic, as some already have, is only the half of it.

The Low Anthem is also to release new music in 2014. Exciting times, yet again.

[to be continued soon]

New Music 2014 - Part 4 - Smoke Fairies

I'm not sure that I have ever tried to write two posts on-line simultaneously but I see no reason why not to try it.
The Smoke Fairies self-titled forthcoming third album, released on 14 April by Full Time Hobby Records on DL (various file formats) to vinyl (but perhaps not cassette) just as you might wish.

Beyond that I can't tell you much other than to say that I have almost all of their previous LPs, EPs and none of them have disappointed.
I can't remember how I first came to know of them but the first time I saw them live was at Latitude Festival 2009 on the Thursday evening and a performance (in a marquee, fortunately) that was interrupted by a truly epic thunderstorm.  I shall look at the ghosts of festivals long gone and try and find some pictures.

This is the only remotely usable one from Latitude 2009 - Katherine Blamire on guitar.

On the Garden Stage at End of The Road Festival 2010 the sun was shining and all this explains, at least in part, why I wish to see them play live once again.

Jessica Davies playing slide guitar.

2013 In Music - Albums - Part 3

In early December I said that I would do this. I always forget some albums that should be included and this year is no exception to the rule. There are in addition, several that I simply hadn't heard, or otherwise understood insufficiently, in time for them to be included in the first two lists. I have been busy with that and, while it might not be finalised for a week or so, this list might possibly run to another half-dozen. I will add them piecemeal as and I get the opportunity to do so.
They are in no particular order but this list will have images. It is again very much tied in with music I have seen live in 2013.
The first is Jo Harman and Company and the début album 'Dirt On My Tongue'. 

Albeit impressive at the first Frome Blues Festival in 2012; the return in 2013 was some triumph. She had it pretty much sewn up.
  

Only The Nimmo Brothers kept it from being the highlight of the day and, as they acknowledged, they have a fair few more years at the grindstone and under the belt. If you find the album is good then you need to see Jo Harman live. That actually applies to The Nimmo Brothers and also King King too - and I had the extreme good fortune to see all three acts in the space of six weeks.
   
The next is the début album by another band that I saw live for the first time at Truck Festival 2013, and another from the small Saloon stage that was curated by Clubhouse Records. This is one reason that I am very much minded to go to Truck Festival 2014 (19/20 July). That band is The Cedars and the album Little Copper Still.

Fermented in America, distilled in Britain.

This leads me to another festival that is tempting, and I thought about it last year. Maverick Festival 2014 (4 - 6 July 2014, nr. Woodbridge, Suffolk). There are no published artists for this yet but I have the feeling that it is unlikely to disappoint and I really like the idea of going to at least one weekend festival that I have never attended before.
   
I made and stated some rules concerning 'best of lists'. If this happens to breach them then, as they are my rules they are also mine to break. Fear not - I have no ambition in politics.
I didn't have this album in time to comment in the two previous lists but the EP 'The Weight Of The Globe' featured here and rightly so. This is about as good as it gets. EOTR 2014, are you listening?

It is also just one of a trio of releases that feature similar superimposed images as artwork... Warpaint - Warpaint is one of the other two that I have in mind. That is however a 2014 release.

    

[To be continued soon.]

New Music 2014 - Part 3 - Tiny Ruins

Time catches up with us all - this however is one of the good times. One of the 2014 "artists to watch" is indubitably New Zealand's Ella Yellich O'Connor, better known as Lorde and not least for her 2013 album 'Pure Heroine'.
Another New Zealand artist well worth hearing is Tiny Ruins, the project of Hollie Fullbrook. I first became aware of this when I was at No Direction Home Festival in 2012.

Hollie Fullbrook (guitar and vocals), Cass Basil (bass). Electric Dustbowl stage.
  

I was reminded yesterday whilst listening to a Mixcloud compilation of singer-songwriter fare in 2013 when I suddenly thought "Oh! a Laura Marling song I don't know and a good one at that." That is never a bad thing; I was wrong about the artist, however.

It turned out to be the song 'Always You, Tiptoeing Through', which is the final track on Tiny Ruins' 2013 EP 'Haunts', which I didn't have. Well worth the cost of the download (the physical copies are long gone). Even better is that a new studio album is coming this spring. I haven't even got the last one yet - Some Were Meant For Sea (2011).

Catch up, Richard!

I now remember why this was. I had intended to buy it at the festival but they had all sold. In any case it has made a lovely start to the New Year, the only blot being that it looks like No Direction Home was a one-off festival. On the other hand I would very much hope to see Tiny Ruins, with the new album in tow, at End Of The Road Festival 2014.

2014. Whither am I bound?

Time to think about festivals again. From experience I can tell you this - it doesn't get any easier. The title applies just as much to artists too.
The first ever Behind The Castle Festival, a one day mostly folk event in Sherborne, Dorset, on June 14 is a must. I shall, of course be attending End Of The Road 2014 but then that probably goes without saying. This is the start of the road.
I'm not a great believer in resolutions for the New Year but this time I decided upon a few. Some are more instantly commenced than others.  This is one that certainly is active immediate.
I shall listen to - and pay proper attention to - at least eight hours of music that is new (to me at least) each week. The investment will be in time, for there is no reason for this to cost much and it could be done entirely legally on-line. It's going quite well I must say but then many good intentions founder before the end of January. The fact that it has rained almost continually has helped and that January looks like it will be a very quiet month for me as regards going to see live music isn't going to be a hindrance either, although that would also count if it were new to me.
One can spend many happy hours trawling through profiles, reading reviews and listening to Soundcloud, Mixcloud and the like, as quite often I do and it costs nothing. On the other hand the likes of Amazing Radio can provide much that is just there and ready for the listening. The presenters have done the pre-filtering for you but, and this is important, not too much filtering. It is free, legal and available worldwide.
I am happy to tell you that, until about twenty minutes ago, I was quite unaware of Finnish accordion player Johanna Juhola. Here is that track and Amazing Radio was the reason that I got to hear it.

You might like Olivia Chaney too ---  yet another one to watch in 2014.

My 2013 in music

You might think that my posts during the year should sum the title of this post. In a sense that is true but, in another it is not so. If I knew of another year that I enjoyed music as much as I did in 2013 then I would tell you about that. The fact is I can't.

It took in all sorts of music and in many places...

Jon Spiers and Bellowhead. Cheese & Grain, Frome, 19 November.

Bellowhead is a band with which I am well acquainted but it is no less a thrill to see them live once again and that could be said of many others too.
Not least though is the new...
I see no reason to think that 2014 can't be at least as good. On the other hand I doubt that any blog can start with a post more astonishing than this.

2013 isn't over yet...

If you think that my last post, and the ensuing hiatus, signalled the end of my blogging in 2013 then think again:

The casual chemistry between Amy LaVere and John Paul Keith makes it seem like this happens all the time - boy meets girl, boy plays girl some songs, boy and girl form band.

“It’s not that we really decided to have a band” as Keith tells it.  

“It’s just that by the time we got done having coffee she’d decided we were a band and was already booking shows for us. By the time I got home, we were exchanging ideas for band names.”
   

If you want a cover version then try this. Eddie Berman, from southern California, and Laura Marling take a shot at Springsteen's 'Dancing in the Dark'.

   

To be fair that is only just a part of it, even as regards cover versions, but this is one I love.

I'm particularly interested to hear about your own favourite covered-songs this year, be they recorded, live or whatever. You are welcome to comment here or via Twitter @thoughtsonmusic.

2013 in Music - My favourite list so far...

I have read many lists of 2013 music and shall read many more I expect, in part as a reference to compiling my own humble additions to the canon. Of all of them this is the most interesting so far by a country mile...

I shall return to this list and what I think it means for 2014, perhaps beyond, in the coming weeks.

2013 In Music - EPs and mini albums

This is the post that I delayed from earlier in the week. I've been thinking about it all the while and yet I am still not sure quite how it will turn out. I think that it will just evolve over the next day or two...

There a few times, when one hears for the first time a new artist or act of which one was previously completely unaware and the first instinct is simply WTF? Festivals are happy hunting grounds for this... indeed albums by two artists that first took me this way have already appeared in this year's lists of albums.

2013 in Music - Albums - Part 1

2013 in Music - Albums - Part 2
    

This is not my first mention of an artist that I had first seen live at End of The Road Festival 2011 (although then under a different name). It was a foregone conclusion, before End of The Road Festival 2013, that this would be here...

Available in, as well as other formats, 12" vinyl (as pictured here).

The Graphite Set live at End of The Road 2013.


THESE STREETS, The Graphite Set from Louis W Hudson on Vimeo.
  

This next EP might be a tough one to convince you of the merits of and for the very same reason that may also affect one album on each of my two lists so far! The last song is the only one sung in English and will hopefully make it all worthwhile. Even finding the EP on CD can be a challenge but your best bet is here. Another artist I want to see live in 2014.

This post, as you might have already noticed is not in alphabetical order by artist. It is not in any other known order either. In the spirit of my first ever such round-up post, also of EPs and back in 2007, I'm going with whatever eligible recordings suit my mood.
It would be wrong to include any act other than on merit. If that happens to be one from not so far distant then that is all the better.

Wolfhound is signed to Bristol-based Jelli Records.

Whilst on the subject of bands including sisters, Natalie and Sally Joiner in the case of Wolfhound above and Anja Quinn on the far right, here is another .

Lily & Madeleine Jurkiewicz have now released their eponymous début album.

This EP however, on 10" vinyl, was their beautiful calling card. The comparison to the Swedish Söderberg sisters, aka First Aid Kit, is valid but not to be dwelt on to excess.
In all probability this thread will have a second post, just as the album thread will have a third. Good times.

2013 In Music - Albums - Part 2

Despite what I said I might do in the last part of this review series, this is not EPs and mini- albums of 2013. It is the second tranche of 'albums of 2013'. The former category is proving far more fascinating, and therefore complex, than I imagined even a couple of weeks ago. It will have to await my attention this coming weekend. The first part afforded you one album that was largely sung in a foreign language. This will include another but the comfort is that at least both of them are sung in the same foreign language. I make no excuses about this, the links, or indeed the variety of music included. You won't catch me adding a link to NME very often but here I chose to do so:

• Danni Nicholls - A Little Redemption
• Deap Vally - Sistrionix
• Emily Barker and The Red Clay Halo - Dear River
• Ethan Johns - If Not Now Then When?
• Joanna Gruesome - Weird Sister
• Joanne Shaw Taylor - Songs From The Road
• Lanterns on the Lake - Until The Colours Run
• Phillip Henry and Hannah Martin - Mynd
• Siddi - Un Tro
• Texas - The Conversation
• Troubadour Rose - Find An Arrow
• Wild Belle - Isles

I've seen seven of these acts live, four of them more than once, and the other five are well and truly on my list of 'ones to see'. Choose your own favourite, not from these, unless you really want to do that, because it is your turn. Write about it - somewhere, anywhere legal.

The Blog Sound of 2014 – the long list.

I have to say that I'm a newbie as far as this goes. Thank-you Robin Seamer and Breaking New Waves for inviting my contribution. None of my three suggested artists/acts made the long list and in some ways I'm happy about that, for myself but also for them. If bloggers agreed about much then, sooner rather than later, the situation would be back to the hegemony of old. I'll risk suggesting that none of the artists on our lists really want that.
The artists on the long list (full version with links) is as follows:

• BANKS  
• EMBERS
• GEORGE EZRA
• HELLA BETTER DANCER
• HOCKEYSMITH
• HONEYBLOOD
• IYES
• KHUSHI
• LYLA FOY
• MARIKA HACKMAN
• MT WOLF
• ROYAL BLOOD
• RHODES
• SIVU
• SOPHIE JAMIESON
• WOLF ALICE

...an eclectic selection and I like that. There are a few acts here that I have seen live and also several of which I was completely unaware. That is also very important. Don't doubt that I shall continue to root for my nominations in 2014.

The list of blogs that were part of this exercise is as follows:

17 Seconds, A Pocket Full Of Seeds, All Noise, Alphabet Bands, Beat Surrender, Both Bars On, Brapscallions, Breaking More Waves, Brighton Music Blog, Cat From Japan, Daisy Digital, Details Of My Life, Don’t Watch Me Dancing, Dots and Dashes, Drunken Werewolf, Eaten By Monsters, Echoes and Dust, Electronic Rumours, Faded Glamour, God Is In The TV, Gold Flake Paint, Hearty Vibes, I Love Pie, In Love Not Limbo, Just Music That I Like, Killing Moon, Like 1999, Little Indie Blogs, Love Music : Love Life, Music Broke My Bones, Music Liberation, Music Like Dirt, My Band’s Better Than Your Band, My Day By Day Music, Not Many Experts, Peenko, Pop Dodger, Repeat Button, Scientists Of Sound, Scottish Fiction, Skeletory, Sleep In Music, Some Of It Is True, Sound Influx, Sounds Good To Me, Sounds Of Now Music, Sweeping The Nation, The Blue Walrus, The Devil Has The Best Tuna, The Electricity Club, The Evening’s Empire, The Mad Mackerel, The Metaphorical Boat, The Sound Of Confusion, The Underclassed, The VPME, This Must Be Pop, Thoughts On Music, When The Gramophone Rings
Check them out - this is a gold mine.
                                 
Expect more of my comments on all this, and more of my own personal reflections on the music of 2013, in the run up to Christmas. That is not to mention some other thoughts on music and prospects for 2014.

New Music 2014 - Part 2 - The Banshee and The Moon

This is in part a reflection on my thoughts about why I like listening to new music so much and also the part the festivals play in that. Back in 2008, whilst at Latitude Festival, I happened across an artist whom I had never heard of before performing on the small Sunset stage at the start of play on Sunday morning, which is the quietest of times for audiences. That artist was Tallulah Rendall and I was impressed. I took some pictures then and this is one of them.

At that time I was not so good at keeping up with new artists as perhaps I am now and I had largely forgotten about her after that. Fast-forward almost five years, to last spring and the emerging artist list for Sunrise Festival 2013. I was already minded to buy a ticket, not least as was to be held a mere five miles from home. I had however remembered the name and when Tallulah Rendall appeared on the list of artists playing that finally tipped the balance and I bought a ticket there and then.
There she played the main stage on Friday afternoon.

During this set she mentioned that she was recording a new album and revealed that it would be titled 'The Banshee and the Moon' and that it would be crowd-funded in large part. It is to be released in early 2014.

The Banshee and the Moon - Tallulah Rendall

The album is currently available only as a limited edition, signed and numbered, 12" vinyl release in a gate-fold sleeve and with a unique download code for the whole album in <.wav> format.
One to see live in 2014.

2013 In Music - Albums - Part 1

There a few subtle changes in presentation from the last three years. The lists of albums remain strictly in alphabetical order, by artist. There may however be more than two lists and indeed nobody noticed that my first 'dozen' last year was a baker's dozen in so much as it had thirteen entries!
The next list will most probably be one concerning EPs and mini-albums. On the other hand as this is so tricky, it might not. This is another category in which I have acquired an unprecedented selection this year. In no way is this intended to be a balanced list, far from it in fact and the albums in this first part are not chosen as being "better" than those in subsequent list(s): It is quite utterly biased by what has caught my attention in a lasting way in 2013.  It is vastly influenced by artists that I have seen live, either this year or somewhat previously, and I make no bones about that fact. The others are all on my list of 'ones to see live'.
Here it is:

• Caitlin Rose - The Stand-In
• Carrivick Sisters - Over The Edge
• Carthy, Hardy, Farrell, Young - Laylam
• Daisy Chapman - Shameless Winter
• Daughter - If You Leave
• Deadstring Brothers - Cannery Row
• Georgia Ruth - Week Of Pines
• Gill Sandell - Burn The Boats
• Jason Isbell - Southeastern
• Josienne Clarke and Ben Walker - Fire & Fortune
• Melrose Quartet - Fifty Verses
• Samantha Fish - Black Wind Howlin'

Comments are always most welcome!

It is what this is all about - whether negative, positive or simply mystified!  All comments are moderated (by me alone, so you know that I read them) and while I prefer it that you can put your real identity to your piece, because you should believe in what you are saying and be prepared to stand up and be counted, I will often sanction the publishing of "anonymous" comments.
Comments that are defamatory to artists or others (but not necessarily me and my choices), offensive or irrelevant will not be published.

I don't bite either. I'll attempt to answer questions and comments either directly if that is appropriate, in comments of my own or in a more general 'round-up' post.

Shameless Winter

Do you remember those mirage summers?
Tousled hair and golden skin
Writing lyrics on the heath and smoking Luckys
It didn't matter what month we were in.

It is that time of year again, the one that invites the writing of lists. Take my word for it, this year the compiling of them has probably occupied my mind more than all the ones that have come before combined, and yet I like that very much.
I simply couldn't resist the lyric from a song from one album and that is why it appears above.
Live music thoughts - well don't even get me started...

Live Music - Marnhull Acoustic Sessions

Marnhull Acoustic Sessions take place in Marnhull Village Hall, a small but intimate and well appointed venue in North Dorset that recently hosted the rather wonderful North Dorset Folk Festival 2013, about which I have already posted (1) (2) (3) and that shares the same organization.

This is simply my thoughts on why I'm so looking forward to the forthcoming artists as the event enters its second year early in 2014.

Tickets are £6.60 (including £0.60 booking fee). This is exclusively secure e-ticketing, so you do not have to worry about the post arriving in time! All the necessary information is on the website linked above.

The next date for your diary is a week tomorrow, Sunday 24 November, and features The Moulettes. If you were at North Dorset Folk Festival 2012, held at Sturminster Newton High School, you will know of them. There's a lot going on.

The Moulettes - North Dorset Folk Festival 2012.
  

If I haven't convinced you that you need a ticket then perhaps this will. Just now the Mike Harding Folk Show Number 47 (on Mixcloud here) also featured 'Songbird'.   In support this coming Sunday, apparently Liz Green. If this is real then what are you waiting for?
The following event is a Ceilidh on 22 December. I have to say that I shall be giving that one a miss. Not only do I have two left feet but it is close enough to Christmas that I shall likely be unavailable in any case.
After recovering from the Christmas and New Year excesses Marnhull Acoustic Sessions return with a vengeance in February.

On 2 February another veteran, although he might not see it quite that way, of North Dorset Folk Festival 2012 returns in the guise of Tom James originally from Falmouth. I seem to have taken few photos of that and this is the only remotely usable one, so hopefully I will be able to take some better ones in February!

Joining Tom on the bill that evening is an artist quite new to the Dorset acoustic scene. Travelling all the way from near Richmond, the one in North Yorkshire, is Pip Mountjoy. She certainly made it as far south as Somerset in 2013, as she played for BBC Introducing at Glastonbury Festival. I saw her live at Deer Shed Festival 2012, up near Thirsk in North Yorkshire. I didn't take any convincing that her star was rising after that and both are certainly ones to watch in 2014.

   
This is followed, just three weeks later, by Phillip Henry and Hannah Martin. In a year that has seen many remarkable albums, and of which more soon, at least from my perspective their latest 'Mynd' is certainly one of them. I have had the pleasure of seeing them twice live, both times at The Cheese and Grain here in Frome.
As of today Phillip Henry and Hannah Martin are nominated in the category 'Best Duo' at BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards 2014.
This picture was taken the first time I saw them play live - at Acoustic+ in the Cheese and Grain, Frome, 25 March 2011.

Hmm... I'm not sure why, but I have a feeling this is going to become something of a regular fixture.

New Music 2014 - Part 1 - Snowbird 'Moon'

I'm so glad that I can mention this now, but also that it is not released until 2014! I have never forgotten seeing Stephanie Dosen live at my first festival in the new era, Latitude 2007, performing songs mostly from her second album 'A Lily For The Spectre'.
Well, finally she is back with a band Snowbird that includes a very surprising line-up, and the album 'Moon' is to be released by Bella Union in early 2014 and to be quite honest I can't wait. This is an album that just has to be purchased on vinyl and I can't see that Bella Union will disappoint.

All that does not detract from the vocals however. This is the lead single from it:

Frome Blues Festival 2013

Well that's North Dorset Folk Festival 2013 reviewed but I'm quite sure that you haven't heard the last of it. 

There is no rest for the wicked and so the following day it was all change. I was closer to home, less then a fifteen minute walk, at Frome Blues Festival 2013. I have to say I wondered how it, and the change of genre, would fare with me in comparison to the previous day. My stamina was one thing I was pretty confident about - this was no test like End of The Road Festival in that respect!
The good news is, that at least from my point of view, it was all good and I have now had ten days to think about it. What I haven't done much of is working through the pictures that I took that day...
It was opened byAlbany Down that I first experienced live saw live at Rook Lane Arts in Frome earlier in the year as support for Chantel McGregor; a few months after she had played Frome Blues Festival 2012 as first support.

Here is my first take on Albany Down at Frome Blues Festival 2013 and, no doubt about it, they were very impressive.

That isn't the quite the term that I would have chosen six months ago.

  

I couldn't have taken this then either but it was, in all probability, not there to be taken.
  

To be quite honest Ron Sayer Jr. had no intent to be taken lightly, and with some reason, if not always exactly perhaps the one that he had in mind. 

He was good but his band kept him on tip-toes all the time and that is well worth seeing.

Innes Sibun was new to me but blues-rock of some impact. Indeed I thought in the moment that it might even become the highlight of the day but, while that ultimately was not to be so, it says a great deal about Frome Blues Festival. 

Innes Sibun on lead guitar.

With album 'Lost In The Wilderness' to trial. It is released 18 November 2013 in the UK.

  

Jo Harman and Company became the first and only act to play both editions of Frome Blues Festival. Last year I noted that I was impressed and this year was a step change.

Here, during an instrumental interlude, is the eponymous vocalist with a quite different take on blues-rock. Jo Harman is one-to-watch in 2014, there is no doubt about that.
First support was Nimmo Brothers and kicked some ass... as well as it falling to them by fâte to announce the sad demise of of Lou Reed. Their response was anything but a sombre set but then again I don't think that is what he would have wanted. As live performances go this could truly be described as visceral.
  

This was at the start of the set and shows all of the band. While clearly committed it gave little hint of the intensity that was to follow. Not least the brothers' dual lead guitar work and certainly not that it would become quite as complicated as this. I took this next picture on a hope and a prayer, whilst simultaneously trying to believe in that which I was watching.

It would be a good trick if...    and they certainly could.

In some ways this repeated last year's festival when the first support act, Chantel McGregor, pitched the headline act into what proved to be an impossible situation. The Climax Blues band headlined this year, and it was excellent too. It was made quite clear however that it was fully aware of what it had to follow. On any other occasion either could have been the highlight of a marvellous day for the pleasingly large audience. It just so happened that Frome Blues Festival came with more than one highlight... and I for one can't help but look forward to the next edition.
Here are a few pictures of Climax Blues Band and, I have to say, I must start with their astonishing saxophonist.

Some slide guitar to die for...

...and a lead singer for whom the epithet 'craggy' is something of an understatement.  

What a wonderful day that was. See you next year!

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'.