Festival Day Review: Moseley Folk Festival - Sunday 3rd September 2023

 

Moseley Folk Festival has been an enigmatic fit since landing into my live music domain in 2011. While other festivals have become ingrained fixtures in the gig calendar, the one closest to home is frequently subjected to competing demands and music channels that are often misaligned. Its aesthetic virtues have been championed since day one and the glorious setting in Moseley Park has been the backdrop to some unforgettable sets over the years. There is a strong chance that this relationship will continue into the future, though nothing would please me more to be in a position where the schedule is clear and the draw is strong to park myself in this suburban treasure land from Friday lunchtime to Sunday evening (give or take the 12 mile commute home).

2023 eventually become the third year where circumstance and choice settled on attending the Sunday only. Up until the eleventh hour, a dilemma surrounded the other days, while the final day was set in stone early on. During previous visits to Moseley, Billy Bragg had been a highlight, while The Proclaimers were a disappointment. There is little more to add to the latter pulling out late on to be replaced by the 'Barking Bard'. The scheduling for the main stage on Sunday evening was spiced up by Billy Bragg being afforded the penultimate slot before American super giants Wilco closed the whole event. A little bit of collaborative history there that posed a question.

Wilco and Billy Bragg

No festival day is the same, but a different feel permeated the short hop to the site this year. First of all summer arrived. Sunny spells are not uncommon on the first weekend of September in Birmingham, but cloudless skies, the temperature gauge pushing the mid 20's and shirtsleeves at the end most certainly are. Good vibes that something special was on the horizon. 

The artists booked by the organisers for this day were a mixed bag from what usually fills my gig and listening sphere. Billy Bragg goes back a lifetime, while Wilco have flickered in the background without be given the chance to get any closer. Kirsten Adamson was my most recent delve with an album and gig review this year. Amelia Coburn was close to getting some coverage last year, so the perfect opportunity to check her out. The rest ranged from sampling awareness to no idea. However, aren't festivals all about exploring? You can't fault Moseley Folk for not exploiting that notion.

Amelia Coburn

The first acts on the neighbouring main and Janice Long stages added more of a backdrop in their experimental nature. Ambience rather than studious pull. The act lined up to start my favoured festival pursuit of intently listening to sets close up was Sophie Jamieson on the Kitchen Garden stage. This fairly recent addition to the site has become a firm and favourable fixture. Heralded as 'folk on the slope', it acts as the third stage and is home to the more intimate offerings on show. All curated by the local live venue that lends its name.

Sophie Jamieson's Moseley Folk experience started off on the wrong foot with a lost luggage incident leaving her guitar-less ahead of being grateful for a loaned instrument. Airlines are regularly the curse of musicians. Wand in hand, she soldiered on with a dark and intense performance that may have been more conducive to a different environment than a lunchtime festival set. Merit could be found in her music especially the songs she played from her recorded content. Perhaps a little more confidence in this material may have helped, but sometimes there may just be better days ahead. Introducing your music from a 'tangled mind' can narrow the transmission at a festival where casual attenders may have yearned for a little more connection. 

Kirsten Adamson and Band

Rather than bob around the festival site in some chronological order I'll stick with the three other sets seen on the Kitchen Garden stage. Middlesborough-based folk singer Amelia Coburn has been on my horizon for some time now. Gladly she had recovered from an illness that lead to a couple of festival cancellations the previous weekend. Firstly, her set brought a sense of buoyant vibrancy to the stage. She came with the intent to entertain a festival crowd and possessed enough craft in her songs, voice and effervescent demeanour to draw a positive reaction. It is always useful to announce a future gig at a venue hosting a festival stage. Amelia will play the Kitchen Garden Cafe again in May. Her performance at Moseley Folk won't have harmed the chances of pulling a few more in. 

When the dust settled on this eventual eventful day at Moseley Folk, the set by Kirsten Adamson solidly nestled on the podium of those performances most enjoyed. The scheduling of her set on the Kitchen Garden stage invoked the one real clash of the day. The choice was the safe haven of Kirsten Adamson or check out in-person the furore around Angelina Morrison's acclaimed folk album shedding a new light on British history. The regret of not following through on the latter as experienced by my partner was tempered by the satisfaction of seeing Kirsten play for the first time with a full band.

The slogan that sums it up

The four piece set-up from Edinburgh were taking in Moseley Folk Festival alongside a Saturday slot at a British Country Music event in Blackpool. Needless to say the band enjoyed the alternative night offerings of the seaside Mecca to leave them a little tender for the Birmingham jaunt. By mid-afternoon the drums, bass and lead were in fine fettle backing the delightful songs and voice of Kirsten. The highlights of this set were similar to the gig she played at the Kitchen earlier this year. The sublime 'Let Me Live', the emotive 'My Father's Songs' and a wonderful deeply felt and individual take on her father's anthem 'In a Big Country'. Similar to Amelia Coburn, a return to the Kitchen Garden is planned for next spring with the added delight of this band being in tow. 

Jon Wilkes was the final call on the Kitchen Garden stage. Bringing folk songs from the Midlands is always going to go down well with a folk crowd in Moseley, albeit the artist is open about making a return to the area's heritage after many years away. A healthy gathering on the slope greeted an artist who has been accruing celebrated acclaim recently. From a personal angle, there is still some connection work to fully feel in touch. There is an opportunity later in the year when Jon hosts a show with Martin Carthy at the MAC in Birmingham. Perhaps the connection will become a little stronger than what occurs in a festival field. 

Billy Bragg x 2

At this point I'm going to gloss over what was seen and heard on the main stages until the evening truly warmed up. Generally the sauntering across a lovely condensed site was genteel and without my usual set intensity. This is a different perspective to the tried and tested festival experience but the ambience and uniqueness of Moseley Folk plays it part to create a sense of warmth and contentment. Fun is so obviously abound; sets by artists not really on my horizon were lapped up and the positive feel to the site fuels a sense of music and art doing its job. All is well at Moseley Folk crowned by the the procession, hay bail fight and spirited all inclusive ceilidh.

Time to switch back into the way festivals work for me. The phrase 'tired voice' has been banding around my brain recently. You could substitute with the word 'familiar' to describe Billy Bragg alongside the ultra positive addendum of 'renewed'. There is still a distinctive tone, theme and aura when he stands in front of a festival crowd. Those aligned stand in awe, get revved up and depart suitably refreshed to continue the fight in whichever way they see fit. It might as well have been 2011 again when he stood on the very same stage spilling his rhetoric, calling to arms and conducting the timeless singalongs. A dozen years on flanked by the on-off stage presence of CJ Hillman on guitars/pedal steel and a keyboard player whose name escapes me is one change, while the theme for solidarity is now right behind the trans and gender identity community. As per usual, the fervent unravelling and simplified advocation rang true. A few new songs with a familiar sheen were also thrown into the set. Practise has perfected the art of extensive banter and precision allowance to enable the communal yell of 'I don't want to change the world' before curtain call. The echo chamber of a folk festival is fine, but the hard yards of the issues are done elsewhere.

Jeff Tweedy of Wilco

Yes we did see Billy Bragg later in the evening. The pull to re-unite with Wilco and sign Moseley off with a rendition of 'California Stars' was too tempting to ignore. That was 10:25 with the curfew fast approaching. A cut off in this suburban setting that wouldn't heed even to a a momentous collaboration. Talking of time (easy as the stage clock was readily in view), it was 9:15 when all three bars of luck matched and realisation dawned that I was in the midst of probably the finest full band performance of alt-country/Americana rock to cross my path. 

Pride should always be attached to the musical journey taken and choices made. On the other hand, the opening of new channels is the spirit of revitalisation. Wilco have always been largely dormant on my radar. No shame just a discovery in waiting. From 9:00 to 10:30 (with a sweet spot explosion at 9:15), they put on a monstrous demonstrative show that blew me away. Guitar craft - solo and in unison - interacting keys, clear songs built on a firm substance and a band delivery that aced all the key components of selling your music to fans old and new. Clearly a Moseley highlight from my time spent in the park and up there with the spine tingling performance delivered by Alabama Shakes at a festival in Louisville Kentucky in the wake of Ali's death. The Wilco radar lies dormant no more. Just 30 years of catching up, starting with the 13th studio release due out later this month.

So there, a rather top heavy festival day. Fairly unique in reception and how it was approached. Away from the personal input, Moseley Folk Festival appears in radiant health. Mild expansion, wide praise, seemingly good numbers and an ambient experience that is like no other on the scene. Moseley Folk may just be a festival for the folk of Moseley, although openly extended to Birmingham, the Midlands and any place where folks want to travel from. The same challenges and dilemmas will not doubt still be present for me in 2024. Nothing would be more pleasing for the festival to beat them all off and lay on a three-day extravaganza with my name tagged onto it. Let's not depart in the future but the present, and the moment the radar of Wilco pointed finally in my direction.