Cambridge Folk Festival 2006

The opening act at this years festival was Mauvais Sort (French for Bad Spell), a dance band from Quebec. This set the mood for the entire festival, and my boasts about dancing this year became a reality. I couldn't keep still throughout their set, mind you, a dark haired lady in red wearing fishy netty stockings and a gap-toothed smile is all the ingredients you need to get this chap going. In fact, if that wasn't enough to warm the cockles of my heart, the girl Stéphanie at one point put on a red 'Natalie Portman in Closer' type wig and taught the audience how to dance in a most provocative manner. Sometimes just one performance does it for me and nothing else after that matters, I can retire to the Guinness tent completely satisfied for the day. I had little interest in Chumbawamba acoustic or Nizlopi who finished the night off on the Radio 2 stage. The song about a JCB irritates me to death anyway, so I wasn't missing much there.

Richard Thompson was the biggie for today and I was intent on seeing him both on stage, in interview and in the flesh. Sycophanting is okay when it concerns a national treasure. Time and experience has taught me, as well as the wisdom of the late lamented John Peel, that one shouldn't concern oneself with people and personalities but instead concentrate purely on the music - but this is Richard Thompson!

The Mojo interview hosted by the magazine's Phil Sutcliffe was the third one so far, the previous two being with Loudon Wainwright in 2004 and Jimmy Webb last year. Each year I make an effort to attend and this year was no exception. The aspect of these interviews I enjoy the most isn't necessarily the informative and often candid converstation but the impromtu acoustic performances from the artists themselves. 



The first act of the Friday evening was the alleged godfather of what we now know as Americana, Tom Russell. His set had all the traits of a much purer American music witnessed previously in such greats as Guy Clark and Townes Van Zandt, both of whom I have seen at this very festival. With amazingly obscure programming that is sometimes the case at Cambridge, Tom's set was sandwiched between two ceilidh performances by Whapweasel. Whenever 'organised' dancing starts, ie. ball room dancing, barn dancing, that funny dancing done by Miss Elizabeth and Darcy etc, I make a quick exit. I am totally and without exception a free-styler.



I made my way over to Main Stage One to see Marcia Ball, the Lousiana based blues singer who could rock the house like no other. I couldn't get my head around how such a sound could come from such a slender little woman. It was like the archetypal frumpy librarian sings Dr John. A really good and exciting set, which left you wondering who could possibly follow it. 



I've seen Richard Thompson a number of times now, once with Linda, a few times solo, a couple of times with Fairport Convention, but I have to say it's when he's on his own on stage that I appreciate him the best. He holds the audience spellbound throughout and I've never seen a bad performance yet. He opened with When The Spell Is Broken and sang one or two gems during his set Vincent Black Lightning 1952 and Beeswing as well as the odd stinker Valerie and something about what us aging men don't normally talk about.



The final two acts I managed to catch tonight were Uiscedwr and Waking The Witch, both of whom I've seen before in Doncaster. A good end to a good day.

Having missed several crucial acts on Saturday due to me nipping across country to attend the Nick Drake Gathering in Tanworth-in-Arden, I was intent on catching up and made sure I caught the second sets of such acts as Nickel Creek, Teddy Thompson, John Butler and Salsa Celtica on Sunday. The first performers to grace the main stage after the traditional Archer's omnibus broadcast was the amazing Rodrigo Y Gabriela, two mind blowing Mexican guitarists now resident in Dublin. having heard a couple of their extraordinary albums I was quite familiar with the tunes they played, but actually seeing what they do to their guitars in terms of percussive effects on stage, was quite staggering.

I caught much of the John Tams, Capercaillie and John Butler Trio sets, whilst basking in the blistering hot sun in front of the main stage. I guess this was my most relaxed period of the entire festival. Over in the club tent, Rosie Doonan and Ben Murray were performing their showcase set. I never tire of hearing this couple and they played a near perfect set this afternoon to a packed house.


Photo: Liam Wilkinson

The evening promised to be filled with excitement with an Emmylou Harris finale. On the Radio 2 Stage, Nickel Creek were playing a storming set. These kids make up one hell of a bluegrass band. I like to think in terms of Alison Krauss with attitude. The mandolin player Chris Thile is one of the most gifted mandolin players I have ever witnessed. I feared Richard Thompson would grace us with his rendition of Britney Spears' 'Oops', which we all got away with, but it was down to Nickel Creek to give us Miss S's Toxic, which was actually wonderfully comical.

Teddy Thompson appears to be doing exactly the same as Rufus Wainwright, Eliza Carthy, Martha Wainwright; he's making a brilliant reputation for himself in his own right despite notable parentage. Ploughing through most of the songs on his second album Separate Ways, Teddy brought to Cambridge some of the sexiness previously provided by the likes of Kate Rusby, Cara Dillon and Thea Gilmore, but this time exclusively for the ladies. I reckon his star is rising at a progressive rate at the moment and would love to see him in the mainstream before too long. A chip off the old block I reckon.

I reluctantly had to miss the next act, which was the final set by Rodrigo Y Gabriela, in order to get over to the main stage for the headliner of the festival, Emmylou Harris. It still amazes me that she has never played this festival during the last 42 years and must be seen as probably the most eligable performer out there. On Sunday night Emmylou joined the likes of Guy Clark, Townes Van Zandt, Steve Earle, Rodney Crowell and countless other country giants and played the main stage at the Cambridge Folk Festival. Playing with a small band, she satisfied the audience with a choice of material that spanned her long career. It was a fitting end to this years festival.



But of course, it wasn't the end of our festival by a long way. After the last couple of Gunness's before the bar closed for yet another year, I checked out Salsa Celtica and danced rather wearily on my feet, whilst chatting to Becky Unthank beside the Radio 2 stage. We then stayed up to watch Peter Buckley Hill's annual after hours performance behind the Radio 2 Stage, who had us in fits.