Special Feature: Cambridge Folk Festival 2018

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“When I first came here with Carolina Chocolate Drops” reflects Rhiannon Giddens talking backstage at Cambridge Folk Festival, “I remember thinking ‘Wow, this place is so calm and yet still so energetic’. People would come up and they’d say that they really enjoyed the set and they were just so polite…and I’m not saying that because they’re British…it’s because they’re music lovers here”.

 

This year Giddens, best known as the lead singer, violinist and banjo player of the Grammy-winning band Carolina Chocolate Drops, was invited by the festival to be ‘guest curator’, a recently introduced role fulfilled in 2017 by Jon Boden.  For Rhiannon, her acceptance of the task was heavily influenced by her previous experience of the festival as a performer; “It was very easy to say yes” she smiles.

 

Part of the guest curator’s role is to select a group of acts to perform at the festival.  I wondered what had influenced Rhiannon’s choices;

 

“It was pretty easy to be honest” she explains, “they’re all people I wanted to hang out with for the weekend!  But also, it all goes into what I do…using my platform to tell stories that need to be told as well as sharing that platform with other people who I feel are doing the same thing”.

 

“Obviously Peggy Seeger being the queen of truth-telling” Rhiannon continues, “she’s been a big influence on my career…that was an easy choice.  I’ve been working with the Birds of Chicago for a long time.  Kaia (Kater), I first met when the banjo was as big as she was!  She was already way better than me.  Amythyst (Kiah), I’ve been championing her a lot. Yola Carter, I came to know pretty recently and it was nice to have representation from here.  So, the group just felt nice; Canada, America, the UK were represented…people of colour, a husband and wife band, a folk music icon…it just worked out to be a really nice group.  I feel pretty lucky”.

 

 

Festival attendees were greeted by gloriously hot sunshine.  By the time Sam Sweeney introduced the National Youth Folk Ensemble to kick off Friday’s lineup, temperatures were already soaring and people sought shade wherever they could find it.  That didn’t seem to bother the 14 to 18-year-old Youth Folk Ensemble in the slightest; they were clearly enjoying every moment of their joyous and very impressive main stage performance, setting a high bar for the rest of the day’s acts.

 

Brighde Chaimbeul filled the massive Cambridge marquee with her haunting and wondrous music. “I really enjoyed it” she told me afterwards, “the audience were really receptive to what we were doing, they were all listening.  It didn’t feel like massive space, it felt nice”.  The Skye musician and piper, regarded as one of Scotland’s fastest rising stars, was heading off to perform in Boston the next day.  I asked Brighde whether, as she travels around performing, she feels a sense of opening her music up to new audiences; “Yeah I think so” she replied, “a lot of the tunes I play, they’re relatively unknown…Gaelic tunes or old tunes from the Western Highlands, may people wouldn’t have heard them before”.

 

 

Over on stage 2, Americana outfit Morganway were wowing the Cambridge audience, as were Moore Moss Rutter, now into their tenth year as a trio, performing material from their recently released album ‘III’.  Back on Stage 1, despite the sweltering heat Gordie MacKeeman and His Rhythm Boys had the audience up and dancing.  Peggy Seeger looked positively glowing up on stage for her set and as expected was warmly received by the Cambridge crowds.  By this time the festival was getting packed.

 

A rapturous welcome greeted the John Smith Trio onto the stage.  It had been nine years since John had performed his own material at Cambridge and it looked like he was extremely happy to be back.  After starting with a wondrous solo performance of ‘Far Too Good’, the hugely popular musician used the occasion to announce his new album ‘Hummingbird’ and went on to perform tracks from the album accompanied by Sam Sweeney and Ben Nicholls.  The new material sounded suitably amazing (read more about the album here).

 

 

After a delayed start, Eliza Carthy & The Wayward Band strode confidently onto the main stage and expectedly tore it up. The twelve-piece line-up blew the roof off Cambridge with Eliza prowling the stage, twisting and weaving.  They were followed by unexpected stars of Friday, Songhoy Blues, who came all the way from Timbuktu, Mali to demand audience participation with their infectious desert blues grooves.  The Cambridge crowd were only too willing to oblige, generating one of the biggest audience reactions of the day.

 

Headliners First Aid Kit made a big entrance to pulsing, kick-drum driven lights and went on to delight Cambridge with a mix of newer material alongside their massively popular hits like ‘Emmylou’ (they also slipped in their storming version of Kate Bush’s ‘Running Up That Hill’).

 

While First Aid Kit were belting out their trademark harmonies, over on Stage 2 the iconic Rosanne Cash was performing tracks from her album The River & The Thread.  Alongside fellow Grammy winner John Leventhal, Rosanne captivated with stories about the ‘dark and mysterious’ southern states.

 

 

Saturday kicked off brightly with The Shackleton Trio who just nine hours earlier had been playing in Geneva to a mountain backdrop.  In keeping with the heat of the midday sun, The Poozies seemed on fire as they opened their set with the aptly named ‘The Punch’ and followed with a bunch of equally banging tunes.  Stick in the Wheel weren’t pulling any punches, delivering their gritty, hard, uncompromising material in an accustomed ‘it is what it is’ manner; one of the most exciting and interesting acts at the festival.

 

Darlingside proved themselves indeed to be the darlings of Cambridge with the loudest audience welcome of the festival so far.  Walking onto the stage, they flashed broad grins at the audience, gathered around their single mic and delivered a contemporary, four-part harmony-driven sound that was stunning as it was effortless. Really, no-one should be allowed to be that cool….

 

 

Rhiannon Giddens performed a number of times throughout the festival, but her main stage performance was outstanding.  Moving seamlessly between musical styles she left nothing on the stage, clearly putting every ounce of effort she could into giving the Cambridge audience a performance to remember.  Simply stunning.

 

As unlikely an icon for folk fans as Patti Smith is, it seemed like she was right at home on the Cambridge stage.  When she stopped the second song after the first few notes, turned to the lighting desk and demanded ‘I’m not Metallica so get rid of the fuckin’ smoke’, everyone knew for sure it was Patti Smith they were watching.  The audience loved her, joining in with her cover of Dylan’s ‘A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall’ with gusto.  The rest of the set covered more familiar Patti Smith ground, with the classic ‘Because the Night’ generating plenty of audience participation.

 

 

Rounding off Saturday night for those with enough energy left to dance were Honeyfeet and the fantastic Elephant Sessions from Inverness.  For those looking for a more traditional but no less entertaining end to the day, Daoiri Farrell played for an hour in the club tent and went down a storm.

 

 

The job of waking the festival up on Sunday fell to Irish Mythen, who was more than equipped for the job.  Powerful vocals, heartfelt songs and a wicked sense of humour was a perfect hangover antidote.  After one mention of Brexit that prompted some back and forth retorts from sections of the audience, the Canadian retreated to the back of the stage saying, ‘When the riot’s over I’ll come back out and sing Kumbaya!’

 

The ever-popular Daoirí Farrell was back in fine voice, this time performing on the main stage with his trio.  He later admitted to having struggled to stay sitting down during the set due to his excitement at being on the main stage; “I needed to stand up!” he laughed, “it was just amazing.  There’s just an endless amount of people and they’re all standing looking at you.  I’ve experienced things like it before, but it’s just great to be here. It’s brilliant”.

 

Daoirí’s had another really busy summer. He also shared that his third album is nearly finished; “We’re just fine-tuning it now, myself and Dónal Lunny” he explained, “we’ve got some great musicians on there.  I’m really looking forward to letting that out into the world and see what you guys think of it”.

 

 

Meanwhile, Edgelarks were blowing away the Stage 2 audience with their wonderfully atmospheric material complete with Phil’s trademark beatboxing harmonica skills.  Having clearly thoroughly enjoyed their performance, I asked the duo what Cambridge is like for artists compared to other festivals;

 

“I think you’ve got a wider range of listeners here” explained Phil, “they’re not strictly all folk fans, there are a lot of people who are just into music generally”.

 

“Something amazing this year as well” Hannah continued, “I think it might be the first British folk festival where there have been as many women as men performing.  It really stands out, there are all these people that I can go and look up to and think ‘I could do that’.  It’s really diverse and interesting, there’s some really folky stuff but it’s a broad definition and I think that’s really positive”.

 

 

Kaia Kater was an assured performer.  The 24-year-old Canadian held the Cambridge audience transfixed with her authentic banjo prowess and vocal presentation, at one point inviting a couple from the audience to get up on stage to waltz along with one of her songs.  While their ballroom skills probably needed a little more practice, they more than made up for it with enthusiasm!

 

Festival favourite Kate Rusby opened up with ‘Benjamin Bowmaneer’ from the ‘Life In A Paper Boat’ Album and followed up with a journey through her extensive catalogue with special guests including Eddi Reader and Michael McGoldrick joining in along the way, finishing with a beautiful rendition of Underneath The Stars.

 

 

Janis Ian was introduced as a legend.  She may not have liked the label, but with four decades of performing and ten Grammy nominations under her belt, it’s easily justified.  ‘At Seventeen’ was the obvious show-stopper but her whole set was fantastic.  Two-time Grammy winner John Prine (recently interviewed here) delivered a performance befitting of his reputation as one of the most influential songwriters of his generation, meanwhile, on Stage 2 Damien O’Kane and Ron Block delivered a fantastic set of tunes from their album Banjophony (a Featured Album of the Month on Folk Radio UK) bringing their acclaimed UK tour to a close.

 

 

This year’s Cambridge Folk Festival was simply overflowing with quality; there were secret gigs, pop-up gigs, surprise collaborations…and I haven’t even mentioned the ‘Den’ stage, where one could have easily whiled away the whole weekend listening to fantastic up and coming acts like Carousel, Bella Gaffney and Polly Bolton, and Zoё Wren.  It was a music lover’s paradise, with the glorious sunshine only adding to the occasion.

 

In closing festival remarks, Rhiannon Giddens said that it had been ‘one of the best weekends of her life.’  As they journeyed home from the 2018 Cambridge Folk Festival, I suspect many people were feeling the same way…

 

Peggy Seeger image by Trevor Lee. All other images by Rob Bridge.