Cambridge Folk Festival 2015 - Part 4 - all sorts of folk

This post doesn't have a specific theme, in part simply because I can't think of one, other than to add how good it all was in its variety. There is however a mild sense of urgency I suppose: I was at Cambridge a fortnight ago and I am still processing that; this time next week I shall be in Wales and about half way through experiencing Green Man 2015.

It is right, particularly in these politically heightened times, to start with a legend. She played the first ever Cambridge Folk Festival in 1965 (the year that I was born, I was about seven weeks old then). Here she is performing solo again fifty years to the day later. And also being nothing if not political...

Peggy Seeger, Stage 2, Friday evening.

She was an artist that I had never seen live before. The next two I have, the former more recently than the latter. The word iconic is possibly over-used but this is one time that I feel it is totally justified.

Show of Hands - Stage 1 - early Saturday afternoon.

As they often are, Steve Knightley and Phil Beer were accompanied by Miranda Sykes on double bass for a romp through their observations on the eccentricities of England and Englishness.
In some ways this artist does that too, but perhaps less stridently. It is over three years, and therefore far too long, since I have seen her play live. Three years in which she has produced so much music too.

Bella Hardy - Stage 1 - early Sunday afternoon.

The emphasis is less on her amazing fiddle playing, and when she does it is often finger-picked, because it really doesn't have to be. She chose to play songs from her latest LP 'With The Dawn'. She played a new song too - she is nothing if not prolific, even excluding collaborations. It does however appear that the forthcoming, second Carthy Farrell Hardy Young LP and the follow-up to Laylam (2013), will be without Bella Hardy. On the other hand, not all news is bad; I believe that Jackie Oates is to take her place. To be honest this is about as amazing as discovering that a square can have five corners, despite all you had been taught.
I shall end this with an Old Etonian, but not one that turned out quite like the current Mayor of London, or indeed the current Prime Minister.
After a degree at LSE (History) he was with punk band Million Dead for a few years. When that dissolved, rather than a career in merchant banking, he took the acoustic route to fame, if not so much fortune. We can be very thankful for that.

Frank Turner - Stage 1 - Friday evening.

This, of course, included songs from his newly released album 'Positive Songs for Negative People'. He had us round his little finger, but he was very nice about it.

Come and see live music.

Right then. Spring is coming, sooner or later, and it is time to stop making excuses and start making plans for the summer. If you have never really engaged with live music but thought that you might, be it indoors or outside, now is the time to make some decisions. There has arguably never been such a choice as there is just now. I'll say it now, loud and plain, even vinyl isn't a patch on live performance.
The tired old excuses - about the kids, food, camping, toilets, whatever.... well they don't really hold water any longer. You can have anything you want - from a couple of hours at an intimate indoor gig to four days camping in a field - and it is up to you. What is more is that it doesn't need to cost the earth either. The one thing that you will have to find minders for, if it is more than a short escape, is your pets. Your cat may have other ideas of a good weekend whilst you are away but that's not my problem.

Here is a selection, biased to those that are reasonably local to me but not entirely so:

Nine dates in cities across the UK and Marnhull Acoustc Sessions in a hall that seats about a hundred.
For more about the artists see here  ---  Blair Dunlop  ---  Emma Stevens. At the same venue the following Sunday Megan Henwood and on 10 May Canadian artist Annabelle Chvostek (formerly a member of The Wailin' Jennys). She has a brand new LP 'Be The Media' coming out on 1 June.

Then on 13 June comes the second edition of Behind The Castle Festival and, as it says, it is held just behind Sherborne Castle, Dorset in beautiful parkland. Bigger and better than last year, which was great this one-day family-friendly festival now has camping overnight on the Saturday (but you need to book that and soon) and will have enhanced catering and bar facilities as well as more stuff just for kids.
Here is the upper crust of the line-up. The rest won't disappoint.

In the way such things can happen, one of the artists not on the above list has been forced to cancel owing to illness. The replacement, who would otherwise have been on the list above, is to be announced tomorrow. It will be worth watching, trust me.
That is not to say that the others in the running list are any less worthy of your attention or indeed mine. I'm a firm believer in always arriving in time to see all of the support sets at any gig and, in so far as is possible, turning out to see the opening acts on festival stages even at 11am on Sunday morning.
You might just get the live music bug. If you do then the longer festivals beckon.
When summer is fading in to autumn  it will be time for North Dorset Folk Festival. That is a long time off and we must not wish all those months away.

If I were to write such a piece then it would not come out much different to this very recent preview:
http://www.rock-regeneration.co.uk/wordpress/2015/04/news-behind-the-castle-music-festival/

Marnhull Acoustic Sessions - Miranda Sykes and Rex Preston

This evening Marnhull Acoustic Sessions celebrated its second birthday with its return for 2015 at the customary venue deep in the north Dorset countryside. Always a gem, it showcases astonishing acts in intimate surroundings and today the treat was Miranda Sykes and Rex Preston.

Miranda Sykes and Rex Preston, Marnhull Acoustic Sessions, 22 February 2015.

The duo is currently part way through an extensive UK tour ending late April, after which they tour with US guitarist Grant Gordy as a trio. That is certainly something that I would like to see and hear live.
If you miss all that they then return to Dorset (as a duo) at the second Behind The Castle Festival at Sherborne Castle on Saturday 13 June.
This is shaping up to be a quite awesome day and Miranda Sykes actually appears twice in different rôles - as above and also as one third of the legend that is Show of Hands, with Phil Beer and Steve Knightley. The *BIG ANNOUNCEMENT*, that of the main stage headline act, is happening this coming Thursday (26 February). Last year The Levellers filled that spot most admirably and this year's act in that slot will not disappoint!

Before Behind The Castle Festival happens Marnhull Acoustic Sessions has another three spring editions:

• 19 April   ---  Blair Dunlop with support from Emma Stevens
• 26 April  ---  Megan Henwood
• 10 May   ---  Annabelle Chvostek (once one of The Wailin' Jennys)

Serious stuff at a venue that seats approximately one hundred.  Just take the first of the three; their ten-date tour includes nine UK cities and Marnhull Acoustic Sessions.

* The Waterboys

Mike Scott and company are confirmed as Behind The Castle 2015 main stage head-liners. Here they are seen at Green Man Festival 2014.

This prompts me to think that I should write more about 2015 festivals. My plans in that regard are near complete. I like the idea of plans and dates that I can work around.
Here is an artist pictured at Behind The Castle 2014 but, as mentioned above appearing at Marnhull Acoustic Sessions.

Megan Henwood releases her second LP 'Head, Heart, Hand' this spring.