How humans attempt to label and list music (and enjoy arguing about it)...

This became a topic, off-line, yesterday evening.
How are 'folk', 'roots' 'bluegrass' and others actually defined? Indeed are there any clear boundaries at all, when it comes to what may, or may not be included? This is a topic that I just know could run forever.
It came back to mind just now as I am thinking about, and  listening to, the 2014 recorded music I have acquired. Here's a picture of the first tranche (and yes, that is an Island 'pink label' on a 2014 vinyl release)...

It has also made me consider that which I wish to listen to or more problematically regret having missed live, which is a matter of self-questioning.
Above all this, however, it throws up a wider metaphysical question. Why do we tend to favour the process of 'classification' and why is such comfort gained by associating the very diversity (which we also tend to like) of things with a rather small number of 'boxes' in which we aim to 'put' them?
Digital devices are all very good for making and storing lists, assuming we are organised enough to store the stuff on them. Digital devices don't argue about the lists we chose to inflict on them and as an example I can find no reliable report of a digital device that has unilaterally declared that it can't abide U2.
Amazon's algorithm is quite good at suggesting things that I might like but not because it knows me and how I think. It simply knows about other people and what they have purchased or browsed and therefore, indirectly, how they think. What digital networks are not yet any good at is what humans are innately good at. That is spotting apparently curious connections or comparisons that are not within any logically associated domain but which very often our fellow humans can relate to. We humans do so endlessly, much to our mutual delight and annoyance.

This is where we get to the arguing part of it. Folk/roots music does not work by rules - it evolves and it does so unpredictably. That is important because if that were not so then it would be a dinosaur. There would be nothing new, original and incisive about it.
When Bob Dylan was pilloried for going electric others such as Fairport Convention took the idea and ran with it. It was ever thus. One other important point is that until quite recently folk/roots music was seen at best to be a minor genre managing decline as best it could.
In a few years, and due to changing technology as much as changing taste, that concept has altered quite remarkably. It is now possible to record and release music without the expenditure, in equipment, facilities or even travel and other sundries such as it recently was. It is true that many fine labels - Topic Records and Fellside Recordings being just two that spring to mind - had continued to release such music and while it is most certainly still not easy to make even a modest living from it, the balance of power has shifted and also in another very important way - the traffic in folk/roots/Americana has also become fully fledged two-way traffic as the often perceived insularity has broken down.

There are some instruments that have evolved to belong, even though until quite recently they did not. Bouzouki is an instrument from Asia Minor. By the early 20th century it had migrated and evolved and was found in music of the Balkans, Bulgaria, Romania and Greece. One of the first, and the best known to introduce it to Celtic folk music was Dónal Lunny of Planxty. The band spent time behind the Iron Curtain in the early 1970s and this is reflected in several tracks on the 1974 album 'Cold Blow and The Rainy Night', to which I am listening as I write. Also on the album are several other songs that do not come directly from the UK or Irish folk canon - The Lakes of Pontchartrain and The Green Fields of Canada being two of them.
There are several others that are not native to UK folk but I'd find to argue that they are no longer assimilated, to all intents and purposes.
Phillip Henry and Hannah Martin are at the top of their game, winning best duo at the BBC Folk Awards 2014, and they headline North Dorset Folk Festival this coming Saturday. They extensively play two instruments that do not feature in the traditional folk canon. Hannah, as well as playing awesome fiddle, is a mean banjo player. Quite when it arrived in UK folk I don't know but it is an essential of bluegrass and also Appalachian 'old time' music, especially when played clawhammer (that is with the back of the fingernails rather than traditionally plucked) in the latter case. Phillip is an amazing resonator guitar player and this instrument although probably of Hawaiian origin entered popular music in the early 1920s via Jazz as it was loud enough to compete (unamplified) with the brass section. Often simply known as dobro this is a brand - it is exactly like calling all generic vacuum cleaners hoovers. Any which way the instrument quickly became a feature of both blues and bluegrass too, as they spread north up the Mississippi. Another Hawaiian instrument to gain traction, because of its general versatility is the ukulele. In all cases these instruments were readily adopted because they were very usable within the existing structure but also bought with them new possibilities. Not everyone welcomed these developments, that much is certain, but this is what a living tradition needs to do to flourish. The fast changing USA absorbed and developed all these influences, including those that came from Africa, whether via the Carribean, south and central America or simply directly and new dimensions took shape.
Inevitably the result was exported once again. There would have been no British blues, in the mould of Free and early Peter Green's Fleetwood Mac, had that not happened. An interesting corollary to this is 'Black Magic Woman' - the Carlos Santana version (1970) is so well known that it is often forgotten that it is a cover of a 1968 Peter Green original (but only a single and then only released in the UK). It appeared on the Santana album 'Abraxas' by which time it had acquired new parts influenced by traditional eastern European Roma music and also Latin american rhythm. Plenty of the eastern European tradition had also made its way west across the Atlantic and that is evident in much bluegrass and Appalachian fiddle music.

So where does this find us? In a whirlpool that none of us had imagined, I rather think!
I shall continue in a new post if only because Blogger tells me that I can't add any more 'labels' to this one!
What is more, come this weekend I will also have a whole lot of live music to write about and, if I have my way, plenty of photos to go with that. I can't wait.

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.

Some thoughts - aside from the music.

This has been in my mind for a couple of months now.
I have been more engaged with music than ever before. I have learned some things and to some extent in ways I had never been aware of before. New music, heard simply as a consumer, is not half as interesting as it is when you can get to see at least some parts of the bigger picture. And that picture has certainly changed dramatically over the time that I have been writing.
One of them is that the more you seek then the more you find - that much is rather obvious and was always true.  The other side is that the more you seek the more you become a target; musicians are ever the optimists! A couple of years back somebody asked why I didn't write a daily post about music. My answer was what would, or indeed could, I find to write about?
This change is something that is more recent. I could quite possibly find things worth writing about now. If I were going to do that then time management would become more important and I really should because embrace that because it would not spoil my enjoyment. It is something that I am now much inclined to countenance.
Three or four posts a week remains my current target: That is to include new music, live music, local music (either local artists or any others that play live locally) and as much photography as I can muster within that roster. Add to that anything else, such as festivals, that I decide to travel to.
As always, please tell me what you like (artists or my writing) and especially what you don't. All comments are moderated (so you know I really have read them) and I don't bite!

New Music 2014 - Part 36 - Kate In The Kettle - Swimmings Of The Head

One quarter of Carthy Hardy Farrell Young, Scottish fiddle player and singer  Kate Young is the one that I know the least about live, having heard her play just one song! This is her soon-to-be-released album as Kate In The Kettle, about which more to follow very soon.

That is not to say that she doesn't write. She does.

I can tell you that, and not because of this in particular, my end of year lists are going to contain a prodigious amount of modern folk, roots and Americana - from both sides of the Atlantic. You have been warned. The journey is as fascinating as the destination, especially when the latter is still uncertain.

New Music 2014 - Part 35 - Rachel Sermanni - Live In Dawson City

Rachel Sermanni is an artist that I first experienced playing live at Deer Shed Festival 2012. Only subsequently, and as a direct result, did I become acquainted with her studio recordings. In a sense that circle is about to be completed for, at least in the UK and Europe, she releases a live album 'Live In Dawson City' on 13 October. 

It is, as were her previous recordings, released by Middle of Nowhere Recordings an independent label based in Ullapool in the north-western Highlands of Scotland. She also comes from the Highlands but Carrbridge, which is further east, south of Inverness.
The next thing to do, of course, is to acquire the recording and that brings me to another point. Is the cheapest legal option the best or that which one might reasonably conclude would give the artist the biggest share of the money that one spends?
I took this release as a test case:
Amazon.co.uk:
£10.99 (including free Super Saver delivery, so 2 - 3 working days)
Rachel Sermanni website:
£10 + £1 postage and packing. Secure payment via PayPal.
This is not rocket science is it? It is true that I didn't explore every avenue but, that said, I would hold that the second option is likely to benefit the artist (and the independent label) rather more. I went with this choice.
Sooner or later I'll actually get round to the music. The fact of the matter is that I know that the music is more than capable of speaking for itself. The venue for the recording is indeed real but also astonishingly remote. Carrbridge has a population of about 750 but is regularly served by both passenger railway and road to major cities within Scotland and beyond. Dawson City, population about 950, is in Yukon, Canada and only about 110 miles south of the Arctic Circle. Its foundation and the Palace Grand Theatre also, although since modernised due to neglect and necessity, date from the Klondike Gold Rush at the very end of the 19th century. The climate, aside from the extremes of light and dark that go with the latitude, is challenging to say the least. The town is built on permafrost but rarely a summer passes when the temperature does not exceed 30ºC!

Thoughts on Music 2014; what it means to me.

This weekend, as the weather finally turned autumnal, my mind strayed to the topic of the music - artists, LPs, gigs, festivals and all - that has made an impression on me in 2014. I know the end of the year, and the inevitable lists that go with it, are both still a long way off. I learned long ago, however, that leaving it all to the last week or two is not the way to do it. I accept that at least some items that make my final lists have not even been released yet - indeed I can think of several contenders that fall into that category. That does not however invalidate starting to consider those that have already been released or indeed that I already have to listen to. It is a sizeable task but a wholly enjoyable one and not least because it requires a degree of comparison with things that I chose in the last couple of years; if only to remind myself why that was and what may have changed since then. I also have the comforting knowledge that nobody can now try to tell me that I should go to Glastonbury 2015.
Yesterday evening, with the rain falling steadily in the darkness outside, I started that quest. I made sure that I was in front of an open fire with home-made pizza, garlic bread and a glass of wine to hand. I do this for my own pleasure, lest you forget, and that is where I have a problem with Glastonbury. It is an institution - and still a wildly popular one as the very recent sales statistics show - but it is not for me. I would implode. Before I even got inside.

I have a pretty good idea of which festivals I shall go to in 2015 and have a ticket for one of them already. I'm planning, as is customary, to go to one that I have never been to before and I know that which I intend it to be. It has been on my list for a couple of years and, thanks to a chance meeting of music and minds at EOTR 2014 it is going to happen.
That said, I have no intention of spending the rest of 2014 merely in contemplation of recorded music, released or forthcoming. Live music matters, whether it is ten minutes walk from home or not.
The next question, and it came quickly, was 'do I listen to the old ones any more?' The answer is, more or less often, yes I do. This is one of the first albums I ever mentioned in 'Thoughts on Music' back in 2006 - and it was Americana albeit that the artist is from Canada...

Honey From The Tombs - Amy Millan (2006). The picture was taken about twenty minutes ago. This album did something that no such other had quite done before. It made sense [to me].

Carrivick Sisters - Live @ The Lights, Andover

Yesterday evening I thought it might be time to start October as I mean to go on, with live music. I have been intending to see a full set from Bath-based Carrivick Sisters for far too long and The Lights, a small council run arts venue in Andover, is barely an hour down the road. With its adjacent free parking and easy access from home it is less trouble than attending an event in Bath and, even more so, Bristol.
Yesterday the sisters; Charlotte (guitar, banjo and mandolin) and Laura (fiddle, dobro and guitar) were joined by John Breeze on bass.  They started the set without John singing 'You'll Miss Her When You're Gone' a capella.

The balance of their extensive set, which in the absence of a support act was divided in to two parts, featured songs from their most recent LP 'Over The Edge' 2013 with a couple of traditional songs (most LP songs are self-penned) and a couple from 2011 LP 'From The Fields' including sing-a-long encore 'Today Is A Good Day'.

The sisters sing harmony vocals as well as share lead vocal duties.

They finished the set with a tune, 'Pig In The Middle'.

New Music 2014 - Part 34 - Awna Teixeira - Wild One

To be quite honest this is a heads-up for March 2015 but after her 2012 début 'Where The Darkness Goes', which I still play often, I couldn't resist giving it a mention right now. The album itself is done and dusted. What she is trying to do now is raise money via Kickstarter to give it the launch and promotion that it deserves. Here are the bare facts: she is aiming to raise 9900 Canadian Dollars (£5500 to all intents and purposes) and in old music industry terms that is small change - the sort that would soon be frittered away on 'expenses' by those that...

Here is ten minutes of music from the album accompanied by stunning video of the wilds of her adopted home of Canada.

You can pledge a minimum of Canadian $1 (£0.56) and every little helps. For CAD 25 (about £14.35) you can have a signed CD and that includes delivery to the UK if that is where, like me, you are located.
She is going to reach the target but it has to happen by 10 October. I want that signed album so I pledged. Needs and wants are quite different things.
She needs this to happen more than any of us want material goods.
There is a theme that the LP both explores and seeks to support the wider understanding of; and that is depression.

Update (8 October 2014, 21:00 UTC+1):
The target was reached with 50 hours still on the clock. If you fancy owning a signed copy of 'Wild One', but haven't done so yet, then you can still pledge until the cut-off time (in about 48 hours).

Marnhull Acoustic Session - Jinder & Pete Millson

After missing Marnhull Acoustic Sessions on its 31 August return, because I was a End of The Road Festival, I reacquainted myself with it this evening. I have just returned from what proved to be a very worthwhile and enjoyable performance from two acoustic guitarists and songwriters neither of which I was very well aware of before. Both hail from Bridport, which is clearly a veritable treasure trove of musical talent.

It was interesting to contrast their respective approaches to song writing and playing. First to play was Peter Millson with a set that included a number of songs taken from his latest LP 'The Love That Meets Return' (2014).

Indeed here he is playing the title track of that very album.

Following the short break was Jinder who presented songs from his most recent album 'Crumbs of Comfort' (2012) along with some earlier material, relevant cover versions and some choice anecdotes that threw interesting light on the songs themselves and the twists and turns of fâte that connected them. He also played a couple of songs that are to appear on his forthcoming LP that will be released early in 2015. I am sure that he mentioned the title but I didn't take notes and have now forgotten.

I'm not going to write more in detail about the music of either at this juncture. It is getting late and in any case I did something that I very rarely do at such events; I bought both the aforementioned albums on CD and quite likely I will return in due course to reviewing them in more detail.
There is no Marnhull Acoustic Session in October: It is better than that for its place is taken by the 3rd North Dorset Folk Festival on 25 October and that will take place at the same intimate venue (and may possibly be the smallest festival in England). I'm going to write a preview of that very soon but suffice to say it will be a treat and it is only £25 (+booking fee). There are not many tickets to start with and very few remain.

Live and local - Domenic DiCicco 'Seeds of Evergreen' album launch

As summer fades into autumn so the outdoor festivals are replaced with the return of regular indoor music events as the staple of my live-listening timetable. The organisers of Acoustic+, an event that I have often mentioned here, decided to bow out at the start of the summer recess having put on 100 shows.
In its place a new approximately monthly event, The Green Room, has arrived on the scene here in Frome. It is not a carbon copy, nor should it have been. From what I saw yesterday I very much like that which I saw and heard.

The opening act was Simon Allen, unaccompanied other than by his own acoustic guitar.

The main act was the album launch for Domenic DiCicco's latest LP 'Seeds of Evergreen'. He is, although Canadian, well known in Frome where he now resides and in particular as part of Praying For The Rain.
While 'Seeds of Evergreen' is a solo LP that is far from implying that he appeares solo, although on one song that was indeed the case, despite the unexpected absence of Paul Sax on violin due to illness. Indeed there were still eight on stage at times. My initial thoughts on the music is that it is slightly less obviously influenced by world music that that of Praying For The Rain, in generality if not specific songs. It was certainly most enjoyable and I think it would stand up well to repeated listening. Here are a couple of pictures.

Domenic DiCicco (2nd left), with Mal Darwen (bass), Delagh King (vocals) and Richard Kennedy (vocals).

As a harbinger of Green Room events in the future it bodes very well indeed. The next, on 24 October, looks like a real treat. It is headlined by The Black Feathers, whom I mentioned here not so long ago, and also includes Exeter trio Wildwood Kin amongst others including Lauren Castle.

Catherine Maclellan - The Raven's Sun

It is true that I haven't written much in the last week. This is neither a reflection of my attention or inclination towards music. Far from it in fact but possibly changes too. That is all still at the planning stage. Not all plans come to fruition.
One thing for sure is that there is certainly no shortage of new music and another is that I have not written enough about new music from Canada of late. If I am to hear a more poignant album than this in 2014 then the truth is perhaps I would rather not.

It is at times devastating. There is more like this out there.

The issue is finding and then writing about it.

New Music 2014 - Part 33 - Caitlin Rose - Gemini Moon

I certainly wasn't planning on writing a post this evening. Then again you never know what might happen. Some things, many things indeed, I could happily have just left to my current mañana instinct. This simply isn't one of them. It is exactly what I needed to hear.

If I haven't worked out the lyric before I go to bed then I shall be somewhat disappointed with myself.

This is supposedly just a demo recording. If that is true, or even if not quite so given the premise of the song and the tease that she is, then the third album should be quite something.
It is now revealed that this song was written with Justin Hayward-Young of The Vaccines. On reflection that makes a lot of sense.

New Music 2014 - Part 32 - Charlie Rose - Stowaways

I just got to hear this, it is released next week, and I think it to be the kind of music that suits the mellow days of early autumn.

Charlie Rose is something of a musical journeyman but also a recording member of the act Arc Iris, which I have already mentioned several times this year. That is, along with my increasing focus on Americana music in all its forms, how I came to hear of this his début LP.
You can listen to it too, then please consider buying. I will be doing so.


I haven't got to the point of choosing any favourites but the impression I have is that this is something I like as a whole, and that is never a bad start.

New Music 2014 - Part 31 - Jennifer Crook - Carnforth Station

Two thoughts immediately come to mind as I write this and neither is directly about the LP itself, so here it is. It is released in the UK tomorrow, 15 September 2014.

The first of them is that I'm not especially given to siding with  The Daily Telegraph but in this case I must do so, and wholeheartedly. I too have been bowled over; I have had the album for a couple of months now and it is not going anywhere far away from my playlist. The second is that it is, indeed, probably better suited to the lengthening nights and cooler days of autumn.
She has said that she was unaware of the Noël Coward 'Brief Encounter' connection with Carnforth. To be fair the lyric makes no direct reference to that story whatsoever - it is more about the locomotives and stock stranded adjacent, seemingly in limbo, and the passengers that they might have carried. I'd like to think that this is true - it seems better that way.
Be that as it may it is an astonishing album and, with the time of list-making getting ever closer, I very much doubt that that of the aforementioned newspaper will be the only one on which it appears.

New Music 2014 - Part 30 - Girlpool

I thought it time that some new music appeared here after a welter of festival related posts. This turned out to be too good to waste any time in sharing. It is the short but not entirely sweet 'Jane' by Los Angeles based duo Girlpool, comprising Cleo Tucker (guitar), Harmony Tividad (bass) and both of them on vocals. Girlpool is now signed to UK label Wichita.

The EP Girlpool is released in November.

End Of The Road 2014 - something old, something new

One thing that I have left unmentioned thus far is the 'limited programme' provided on Thursday evening. It was instituted a few years ago for the then small proportion of festival attendees that arrived on Thursday afternoon. All indications suggest that this fraction is rising year by year, probably exponentially.
This all took place on the Tipi stage and comprised four acts from 6:15pm. The last, and easily the pick of them, was Ezra Furman. He also played the Garden Stage Friday evening (which I did not see, but apparently excellent too.)
Here he is on the smaller stage on Thursday evening. The easiest way to categorize him is to say that I can't. I think that this might be key to his seemingly burgeoning appeal. He would have it that he has made greater inroads in the UK than in his native USA (originally from Illinois). It's rock albeit of a more-or-less pop persuasion, it is certainly camp (his band is The Boyfriends), it is clever and knowingly so, but surely we have seen all those things combined before?

That is probably true but if we took that approach more widely then we would have nothing left to listen to. NOTHING. AT. ALL. The majority of the tracks came from his 2013 LP 'Year Of No Returning'. The point is that it was everything it should be; unpredictable (not least the self-deprecating asides), sometimes challenging but above all it was hugely enjoyable. What's not to like?

In some ways the next artist tells, through his songs and his career, an equally unlikely story. From an icon of the UK folk-rock boom in the late 1960s to, more than four decades later, being held in the highest regard in the US as one of the totems of the Americana/roots explosion. Richard Thompson made his recording début as a founder member of Fairport Convention in 1967.

His latest LP 'Acoustic Classics' (2014) is less a greatest hits, though of course they are, but more an attempt to regain his own songs that in many cases are now better known by many people via the cover versions of others. He played this set on the Garden stage, Sunday evening solo and acoustic except for the finale for which he was joined by his daughter and son in law.

The next is an example of how live music plays out in other ways to that which is recorded. The LP 'Rain Plans', by Israel Nash, has been recommended to me more times than I am inclined to count yet still languished in the "saved for later" section of my on-line cart and I never committed to purchasing it. That situation was very conveniently resolved. Without any on-line dealings!

Israel Nash, Tipi stage, Friday evening, End Of The Road 2014.

When Futur Primitif appeared on the Garden stage on Sunday morning there were plenty of comments concerning his new, jacketed visage and that was quite understandable. 

I'm happy to say that he retains his maverick streak but only the early birds amongst us, and we were quite numerous, really got to see it (during the sound check). Any which way the songs are so good.

End Of The Road 2014 - more highlights

Over the last day or two I have pondered whether to try and theme my further thoughts on End Of The Road 2014 by genre, chronology or stage. In the end I concluded that such divisions were largely immaterial. What really matters is this - more of the acts that I really liked. There are plenty of them and therefore this might cover two posts in time.
To start with is Lau, whose members I have all seen playing live at least once but never together as such. The link above reads like a textbook exercise in hyperbole until, that is, you see it happen live. Here they are, Garden stage, Saturday afternoon.

This is of course one reason that, in the ten years Lau has existed, it has taken away the BBC Radio 2 Folk Award for 'Best Band' four times, most recently in 2013.
Whilst on the subject of quality, another thing to note is that of the printed EOTR festival programme; it is absolutely worth the price (£6) and that is nothing new. The writing, the editorial style and the layout are top notch. The only mistake I noticed was that it said that Cate Le Bon's performance, again on the Garden stage on Saturday, was her EOTR début: it wasn't, she played the same stage in 2010 but no matter.
That was before the release of her first full LP 'Me Oh My' and she was clearly someone to watch. 'Cyrk' was then followed by her latest, 'Mug Museum', and she just gets better and better. More importantly people both here and in the US (she now divides her time between Wales and California) are starting to take notice.

Someone very accustomed to both the Garden and Tipi stages at EOTR is Jocie Adams. That was however with Rhode Island indie stalwarts The Low Anthem. This was her first EOTR outing fronting her own band Arc Iris here as a four-piece and which, as her tradition dictates, played both stages on Friday.

Lunch time, Friday, on a rather breezy Garden stage.

All four in the frame. Tipi stage at the very end of Friday evening.

On the basis of this you might be thinking that I never even visited the Big Top stage. It is true that in comparison with previous years I spent very little time there but one of the few occasions was to catch part of the Pink Mountaintops set.

It is probably true that I spent less time at the Woods stage than in previous years, though I have already mentioned Jenny Lewis playing there. For all my pre-planning I always end up reinventing much of my schedule on-the-hoof and I will continue to do so. This next band was not, pre-festival, particularly on my radar. It just goes to show how very wrong I can be...

Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks, Woods stage, Friday evening.

Three to see twice - Green Man and End Of The Road 2014

I mentioned this earlier in the week. Now, having caught up with sleep and the pictures, I'm no longer in la la land. Well mostly I'm not; to be quite honest a part of me is still at EOTR 2014!
I made a deliberate policy of seeing three acts that I saw at Green Man all over again, just a fortnight later, at EOTR. The three are Samantha Crain, The Rails and Alice Boman. The curious thing is that all appeared on the Walled Garden Stage at Green Man and on The Tipi Stage at EOTR but, in the latter case one each day. I intend to illustrate this post with pictures I took at both festivals.
When it comes to the stage the Walled Garden wins over the Tipi for its outdoor ambience, but when it comes down to the bottom line it is the band that really matters. I had high expectations of The Rails before I saw them live for the first time at Green Man. They blew me away then --- and then they did it all over again, only more so, last Sunday afternoon. 'Fair Warning' (2014) is the début album and it more than delivers on the promise.

'The Rails' Tipi stage, Sunday afternoon, End Of The Road 2014.

As regards photography, well for all that I am learning faster than I thought I might, it is very much a case of simply handling the cards one is dealt as best one can: everything changes, every time.
One thing that few people seemed to disagree about, at either festival, is the perfection of Alice Boman's vocals. She may not yet be an artist that people buy festival tickets on the strength of but either that time will come or perhaps equally importantly, the strength in depth of the offering will.

Alice Boman, Walled Garden Stage, Green Man 2014, Friday afternoon, squinting into the sun.

Alice Boman, Tipi Stage, EOTR 2014, 10:40 pm Friday.

Here she is selling and signing CDs thereafter. She got through most of that box come the end of the line.

Last but certainly not least, and with more released recordings than either of the aforementioned, this is Samantha Crain from Shawnee, Oklahoma.

Tipi Stage, End of The Road 2014, early Sunday evening.

Samantha Crain, Walled Garden Stage,  Sunday afternoon, Green Man 2014.

Three acts from different countries, UK, Sweden and the US respectively, that exemplify the increasing strength in depth of the folk-roots revival in recent times.

End Of The Road 2014 - Part 2

Shortly before I headed off to the idyll that is Larmer Tree Gardens and the venue for End of The Road I posted a "must see" list of eight acts that does not include any of the three, mentioned in my post yesterday, that I saw at both Green Man 2014 and EOTR 2014. This is how I got on with that. I saw the complete sets of seven out of eight; the exception was Pink Mountaintops and largely because of a time (and day!) scheduling change, but I still saw a few songs in the Big Top tent on Friday.
Lily and Madeleine opened proceedings on The Garden stage on Saturday morning.

They played songs from the forthcoming second LP 'Fumes' and, from what I was able to tell when talking to people during the weekend, gained a whole load of new fans too.

On Saturday evening Marissa Nadler took to the Tipi stage, the smallest of the four main music stages. She has been on my list of "ones to see" for an age, or so it seems, and never more so than since the release of her most recent LP 'July' in February 2014.

This is her seventh studio album in a run that started with 'Ballads of Living and Dying' in 2004. It is the first to have a UK release on Bella Union. Regular readers will be well aware of the importance that I attach to this.

Much the same could be said of Liverpool trio Stealing Sheep since the 2012 début LP 'Into The Diamond Sun'. I mentioned the dragon yesterday.

Stealing Sheep playing The Garden Stage on a gloriously sunny Sunday afternoon. The songs are short, sharply conceived and based for the most part around a percussive format. In the moment it was hard to imagine anything more perfect.  

Stealing Sheep, Tipi Stage, early Monday morning.

Until that is Stealing Sheep became one of very few acts I have seen play two live sets within twelve hours. It is things like this and, more than one might realise, the people you meet that make festivals very special.

End Of The Road 2014

I'm back home and, unlike yesterday, no longer dog-tired. I have started to think about it all with some clarity and also, this helps with the foregoing, view it through the perspective of the pictures that I took throughout the weekend.

Was my sixth consecutive EOTR adventure up to the standards of the previous five?
Well. Let's put it this way; I am clearly not alone in my opinion. I have my 'Early Bird' ticket for EOTR 2015 (4 - 6 September). They went on sale this morning (2 September) at 9am BST and by 6pm BST more than two-thirds of those available had already sold! It will be some months before we know the identity of a single act to play then but my view is that if I can't trust the EOTR team to deliver then there is no longer any trust to be found.

It is going to take me much of the rest of this week to complete this self-debrief process. Here are a couple of pictures to kick things off. 

Jenny Lewis, Woods stage, late Friday afternoon.

The Stealing Sheep dragon, Tipi stage, 1am Monday.

Yes it was this glorious; endless blue sky on Sunday afternoon. This is the Woods stage about 16:45. Deer Tick was still playing but I was on a mission. The Tipi stage and a little project that had only occurred to me after I had got back from Green Man Festival. 

What if... ?
Two festivals a fortnight apart, the same three acts, all playing on the same stage at each festival. It was technically possible, that much I had worked out. The rest was down to fâte and my ability to harness it. I have only myself to blame.