For a solitary hour on Saturday evening, the 50th
Cambridge Folk Music Festival was transported deep down the Mississippi Delta
and immersed in an album that is rapidly evolving into a blueprint of
perfection for those captivated by the true essence of southern roots music.
Rosanne Cash was returning to this premium festival for the first time since
2003 and her full band-near complete performance of THE RIVER AND THE THREAD
just eclipsed Jason Isbell as the Americana highlight of an event keen to
showcase so much fine roots music from around the world.
The best way to approach a festival of this manageable size is
to have your hit list, take a chance on a few unknowns and browse the rest to
soak up the atmosphere. With a strong Americana presence this year, the first approach
was well stocked, while the second threw up some acts craving to be further
explored. No doubt there will be many column inches for the major bookings such
as Van Morrison, Richard Thompson, Sinead O’Connor and an endless list of
established folk performers but you’ve come to the right place to get a slight
Americana slant on the weekend’s proceedings.
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| Rosanne Cash |
THE RIVER AND THE THREAD is an album that gets better with
each listen but Rosanne and her top notch band led by husband and key architect
John Leventhal took the record to a different plane by devoting 45 minutes and
8 tracks from it to her set. The stories behind the songs breathed extra life into a project which has exceeded all expectations as the band barely wasted a
note and Rosanne possessed a stature to equip her roots. The most defining
aspect was the sincerity and belief in the project of sharing her heritage.
Throw in a couple of songs from THE LIST and ‘Radio Operator’ from BLACK CADILLAC and the hour long set was
maximised to perfection. The bar at this festival was set high for a young contender
to continue to make his mark.
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| Jason Isbell |
Jason Isbell is that contender. He is being tipped for
massive industry recognition at this year’s Americana Music Awards and his
Sunday afternoon slot on the main stage added an abundance of credibility to
this groundswell of opinion. Supported by his super talented wife Amanda Shires
on fiddle, Jason showed no lack of composure, although without his famed band, to
showcase a number of tunes from the acclaimed SOUTH EASTERN album and a few more
from a wider back catalogue. The stunning song quality, humility to his craft
and vocals to pierce a sedate suburban atmosphere marked the set which for me
continually peaked from ‘Travelling Alone’,
‘Cover Me Up’, ‘Stockholm’ to one of his older songs ‘Alabama Pines’. Jason Isbell is a performer at ease with his
talent, situation and ability to move into the upper echelons of American song
writing. Cambridge Folk Festival was a privileged place to be to see him
perform.
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| My Darling Clementine |
Over the last couple of years, British husband and wife duo
Michael Weston King and Lou Dalgliesh have gone down a storm with UK Americana
fans with their tongue in cheek take on classic country music. The outfits may
be a touch garish but the songs are top drawer and for this Friday afternoon
Stage 2 appearance the duo had the support of a full band. The folk festival
crowd loved the Lou-led feminist response song ‘No Matter What Tammy Said’ and Michael showed the diversity of
their style with the soulful ‘Our Race Is
Run’. The day will come when Michael and Lou move on from this style but
another splendid performance of their two My Darling Clementine albums was a pleasure
to witness and hopefully acquired some new Cambridge Folk Festival fans taking
a chance on a different act.
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| Samantha Crain |
At this point it is worth mentioning a couple of American
artists who raised their profile with two contrasting acts. North Mississippi
Allstars are a high energy country blues trio who evoked a dose of roots
infused mayhem to the main stage on Saturday afternoon. Heavy on percussion and
rip roaring on guitars, the trio headed by the Dickinson Brothers , Luther and
Cody, electrified the audience with their home state take on the blues with
newly acquired bassist Lightnin Malcolm muscling in on the act at opportune
moments. A drum led trip by all three band members into the audience mid set
combined with the high octane sound ensured there were no mid-afternoon dozers in
the vicinity of the main stage. On a more serene note, the impressive singer-songwriter Samantha Crain from the troubadour state of Oklahoma played an inspirational
set in the quieter Den venue on Friday tea time and created an impression to be
further checked out. There was more than a touch of Lucinda Williams and Mary
Gauthier to the sound of Samantha and she quickly became a notable festival find.
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| Saraj Jarosz |
The American contingent at Cambridge this year was swelled
by a couple of artists who played a pair of sets across the weekend. Both have
an old time feel to them and are slowly becoming sought after acts in the UK.
Pokey Lafarge was also part of an array of artists who opened the festival on
Thursday evening. Not being on site for this part of the festival made it essential
to catch Pokey live on the main stage on Friday afternoon and to see this St
Louis native’s take on the tradition of his home town musical heritage captured
perfectly the ideals of the festival to celebrate roots music from across the Atlantic divide. Sarah Jarosz is a
fantastic young artist who values the tradition of American roots music having
its own beginnings in the British Isles. Two of Sarah’s Cambridge sets were
attended and perhaps the most prominent was her Sunday lunch time main stage
slot where she and talented band members Alex Hargreaves and Nathanial Smith
besotted the early arrivals with a multitude of mesmerising acoustic tunes.
Sarah even rotated the sing along numbers with the Tom Waits song ‘Come on Up to The House’ rousing the
audience into some vocal involvement on this occasion.
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| Lindi Ortega |
Lindi Ortega is a wonderful complex performer who has
courted country and Americana fans alike with an unassuming take on, predominately,
the darker and more quirky side of life. Attired with her trusty little red
boots and black skull paved dress, Lindi went down a storm with a folk festival
audience not too fazed by the left field slant of many performers. Unlike her
previous UK visits, Lindi was this time alone with just an acoustic guitar but
the familiar songs had that same old magical sound. ‘Cigarettes and Truck Stops’ never fails to move while the glowing ‘Gypsy Child’ is pure autobiographical.
For an artist who rarely stands still, she previewed a new song which unsurprisingly
was her take on passing through life. Although this was just a fleeting visit,
the flame for Lindi Ortega in the UK still flickers brightly.
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| Raevennan Husbandes |
Back onto a final couple of artists who possessed an understanding
of the nuances of the Americana genre and were both relatively unknown to me
prior to the festival. The Rails are a British based folk rock duo comprising
of Kami Thompson, daughter of Richard, and established guitarist James
Walbourne. Backed by a fine band, The Rails eased between beautiful harmonic
pieces with more than a hint of country to a full on rock sound that ratcheted
up the tempo. In contrast young artist Raevennan Husbandes captivated a large
gathering in The Den with a bluesy sound supported by the legendary BJ Cole on
pedal steel. Her wonderful bio of ‘Afrocentric Quirky Beatnik Songbird’ perfectly
sums Raevennan up and she has been added to the ‘ones to look out for’ list.
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| Jess Morgan |
One of the many delights of this, and any other festival, is
perusing the smaller stages and a number of artists listened to over the
weekend certainly warrant a mention. It was great to catch up with Jess Morgan again
as she performed a handful of fine songs in the Club Tent. The same venue
hosted an entertaining set from Luke Jackson who included a good version of ‘Man of Constant Sorrow’ in his selection
of songs. She may have been competing with Van Morrison in the background but
the beautiful vocals of Kelly Oliver won the match up. Kinver based band
Clutching at Straws excelled in the growing trend of making roots music cool
for the new younger generation while Goat Roper Rodeo Band are making a similar
case for cosmic country blues. All these and many likeminded artists continue to
be the pulse of the festival and provide the perfect foil to the bigger fee soaking
artists.
There was no complaints with the Americana menu served up by
the Cambridge Folk Festival, in this their golden year. The bubbling undercard
garnished the selection with a lavished offering of great music to create the
perfect base for an emerging superstar and iconic album to crown the feast.
Cambridge Folk Festival was awash with stars but as you would expect from an
Americana perspective, none shone more brightly than Rosanne Cash and Jason
Isbell.
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| Amanda Shires |
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| Jason and Amanda |
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| Michael Weston King |
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| Goat Roper Rodeo Band |
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| Clutching at Straws |
