Despite arriving later than planned to Purbeck Valley Folk Festival on the Friday my frustration with the holiday traffic was soon soothed and forgotten as Siobhan Miller took to the Big Barn stage. She was supported by a top-notch band comprised of Euan Burton on bass, John Lowrie on keys and percussion and Aidan Moodie on guitar.
She began her set with a fine choice as it was the Banks of Newfoundland which won her Best Traditional track at this year’s BBC Folk Awards. She had learnt the song from Rod Patterson of Jock Tamson’s Bairns and the Easy Club. Like Patterson, Miller is an engaging performer and has a wealthy repertoire of song as she demonstrated during her first performance at Purbeck.
She performed a number of personal favourites from her latest album Strata (2017), including the driving Pound a Week Rise. Siobhan has a passion for collecting miners songs, the seed of which she traces to her Grandfather who was a Fife miner. This particular song, learnt from and written by Ed Pickford who was also a miner in the Durham Coalfield is a great lesson in history. It tells of the 1960 miners fight for a pound a week rise which was promised by Lord Roben “Old King Coal” of the National Coal Board who never delivered on his promise.
The song has also been covered by the brilliant Dick Gaughan and it was one of Gaughan’s own songs that Siobhan then turned to…a song with a good life lesson about appreciating what you have – What Do You Do With What You’ve Got.
The set was well paced between the moving such as the night visiting song The Unquiet Grave and her brilliant cover of Bob Dylan’s One Too Many Mornings to the celebratory carefree energy of The Ramblin’ Rover by the late Andy M. Stewart of Silly Wizard.
The band were equally impressive, with Lowrie managing to play keys with one hand and drums with the other, while the bass and acoustic guitar more than served their purpose of providing atmosphere and drive. It was an infectious set, filled with emotion, humour and energy. What more could you ask for?
Festival Signage
The Friday just continued to get better with great powerhouse sets from Sam Kelly and the Lost Boys, Urban Folk Quartet, King Creosote and Trad.Attack! which, although some overlapped between stages, were close enough to warrant some toing and froing.
It has to be said that despite being a large band, Sam Kelly and the Lost Boys have a natural stage presence that requires no gimmicks or choreographed moves. They have a warmth and intimacy with their audience which is enough to carry them. There were some great sing-alongs including a rousing audience participation for their cover of Sultans of Swing. Likewise, their cover Dylan’s Crash on the Levee is a complete transformation of the original and all the more powerful for it.
The audience reception was incredible with large swathes of dancing and singing along to favourites such as Angeline Baker and that ever-popular ballad The Golden Vanity.
Both the Urban Folk Quartet and King Creosote followed, drawing large crowds and plenty of dancing. They warmed the audience up well warmed up for the Friday night finale with one of most energetic performances of the weekend from Estonian band Trad.Attack! The Long Barn audience seemed to have permanent grins on their faces as the trio rode them through their pulsating roller coaster set which nearly cost the guitarist his ankle during a misplace stage jump as he tried to land in amongst his numerous effect-pedals. It was one hell of an evening.
For those that wanted to start their mornings early’ish there was the draw of the workshops as well as Rhyme Time with Catherine Burke and her band. Catherine and her partner, Phillip Kingsbury have a son called Basil who moves pretty fast for a one year old…you need to keep an eye on him. Anyhow, having recently turned one, Catherine and Phillip decided to celebrate with the publication of The Nursery Rhyme Songbook featuring his Lino print illustrations of popular nursery rhymes and children’s folk songs along with folky recordings on CD or download. We highly recommend you get a copy, it’s being published via Little Spoon Press and you can find out more here:
Following this we managed to catch some of the Songwriter’s Circle featuring Korby Lenker, Carrivick Sisters and Hannah Scott Duo before dipping into two great sets from the incredibly talented duo of Ninebarrow whose name comes from Nine Barrow Down in the Purbeck hills and the wonderful O’Hooley and Tidow whose humour and songs never fail to entertain.
Naomi Bedford and Paul Simmonds (despite being nearly taken out by a large blue bouncing ball let loose by a small child at the Firepit Stage) delivered yet another warm, engaging and entertaining set. Their on-stage banter was just like how they are off-stage, having spent time in their company over the years. There was plenty of laughter and a few elbows in ribs amongst the audience as Naomi tried to get Paul to publicly agree that he loved her chaotic ways which leading perfectly into their ever-popular Ramshackle House. Feet were sent a tapping for Simmonds fast-paced Junktown, from their History of Insolence album, and we even got to hear a song by Paul that has been on the backburner for many years – but hopefully not for much longer. They have an interesting new project underway for which they have received a lot of encouragement for from Shirley Collins so watch this space.
I managed to capture a double helping of Brona McVittie who sounds as brilliant live as she does on her studio album We Are Wildlife. In his review of her album, Thomas Blake spoke of her vision and her light and air settings and these were more than apparent when she performed at the Fire Stage and on the more intimate Duck Shed stage.
Richard Thompson, not surprisingly, was a big crowd puller as the final act on the Big barn stage. He performed some great personal favourites including Meet on the Ledge and Beeswing alongside new material from 13 Rivers which we recently reviewed here.
Rolling into Sunday we couldn’t have asked for a more perfect start to the final day as we sat down to enjoy the fine musicianship of Jenn Butterworth (guitar) and Laura-Beth Salter (mandolin). They delivered a fine mix of folk and roots, from Mindy Smith (Come to Jesus) and Bert Jansch (If I Had a Lover) to Appalachian tunes all backed by the most beautiful harmonies.
They told us at the end of their set that they were looking forward to trying the cider on offer. True to their word, I caught up with them later that day doing just that.
Jez Hellard and the Djukella Orchestra put on an top-notch performance. Hellard was supported by Nye Parsons on double-bass and the members of Teyr: Dominic Henderson (Uilleann Pipes/Whistles), James Patrick Gavin (fiddle) and Tommie Blackroff (accordion). During an instrumental set for Atlas Tango from their D’rect from the Shire album, Jez took great pleasure in leaving the stage and admiring the musicianship with the audience, it was a great highlight. Another highlight was the perfect summer sounds of Canned Goods with that great chorus of ‘Taste a Little of the Summer’. Later that afternoon we got to experience the fine musicianship of Teyr again for their own tantalising set.
If it was sharp-witted lyrics you were after then you need have looked no further than the Catherine Burke Band (which included her brother Bob Burke who played later that afternoon with his own band). Catherine’s lyrics seem to always resonate well with audiences as they are often born from real-life everyday observations. She delivered on two personal favourites which are great examples of this and which require an audience sing-along – Where did all the willpower go and The Last Time, a song about all those things we say we’re never going to do again but do anyway…such is life.
Purbeck are always keen to introduce new artists and although we have featured Thom Ashworth I dare say he was probably a new name to many at the festival. He really is like a modern day Martin Carthy and it was plain to see from the audience reaction that they were more than happy to hear a lot more. He’s certainly a name more folks should be familiar with and hopefully that time will come very soon.
A quick mention of the non-musical – Pantheatrix are a travelling fire circus that my kids (and their parents) really enjoyed…it became something of a ritual to head up the hill to watch them once darkness had fallen. The Handwritten Letter Appreciation Society (http://thehandwrittenletterappreciationsociety.org/)- being a lover of pen and paper this was great to see (see some of results on their blog including artists who dropped by) – not to mention the ceilidhs, dance workshops, blacksmith forge, singing workshops, poetry slam, the annnual Beard-off, fancy dress, Purbeck Rising, Storytelling and circus skill workshops…oh, and the welly whanging which my kids love…the list goes on!
As is always the case, I missed a number of acts that I really wanted to see but that’s always going to happen. It was a fantastic festival with a great balance of variety and plenty to keep both the young and older happy. What more could you hope for?
Till next year Purbeck.
http://www.purbeckvalleyfolkfestival.co.uk/