Festivals are always an interesting exercise in selectivity – choosing whom you are going to see invariably means that you will miss out on someone – But I picked a reasonably balanced path through the overall fandango, given I had other time constraints which meant that I would miss some of the earlier daily sessions and the last sunday night concert. Starting with Friday night, the inaugural performance of the Loughborough Folk Festival with Tom and Gren – favouritism, yes, we know them well... Followed by a fringe session at the Pack Horse, an open evening for a variety of mainly traditional performers - a wild night. Saturday – a quick look at Lisa Knapp before going to another superb singaround and the big concert of the evening – Waterson/Carthy, via some impromptu sideshows scattered around the building. Sunday – watched the local massed Morris crews before The Young Coppers backed with Shirley Collins' stunning 'America over the water.' Met a lot of old friends, made a couple of new ones. Drank too much, had a good time overall. Much food for thought, about what folk music is now in this country, what it was – and what it could be... More detailed breakdown below...
Friday
No choice. Had to go and support the boys who are steadily making ground in their professional career. Tom Kitching and Gren Bartley, relaxed and on fine form in what was (potentially) quite an intimidating scenario as festival openers. A big crowd, who enjoyed their set – an interesting mix of traditional and contemporary musics and songs, drawing on a wide range of sources, American, English and beyond, plus self-composed material. I saw them only a couple of weeks ago on a club gig and was struck by the distance they had travelled in such a short space of time. Gren's voice has got much stronger and, by keeping to his own natural timbres, he is able to handle potentially awkward emotional/cultural areas – American blues and gospel - with a certain finesse. For example, his English voice gives their version of a raw American gospel song like Blind Willie Johnson's 'You're going to need somebody on your bond' a certain detachment that helps to set up a channel to the original rather than trying to copy it by crossing over into 'blackface' - which would be disastrous. Not sure why this works – but it does, as if by stepping back into your own musical culture you can better find a more accurate resonation with the source material. Tom Kitching's violin playing is expressive and strong throughout, the perfect fiery accompaniment to Gren's cool fast-picking guitar and vocals – plus his announcements are witty and he seems at ease with the audience. A demonstration of how to blend old and new succesfully...
Over to the Pack Horse for Frank's singaround session – one of those nights that make a festival special, where you can go off official ground and into a less regulated space. A chaotic evening – in the best sense as the room was jammed throughout by an audience good-naturedly accepting the cramped conditions especially at the back. A large battery of performers, high standard throughout, during which the local singers more than held their own with the visitors, both grand and anonymous. Overwhelmingly traditional – which is unusual for the broad church of the Pack Horse – but the atmosphere generated overcame the narrowing of genres. A great night, much talked about over the coming weekend. Frank came up trumps (again) with a lot of thought and hard work gone in beforehand that was masked by an easy conviviality and a light hand. Plus: the new regime at the Pack helps to make the pub a more pleasant place to visit than it has been for a long, long time... A quick shout to Theresa, the landlady, for her ongoing hospitality.
Saturday
Unfortunately I missed the Distil showcase – would have been interested to check this out, the various collaborations and commissions involving electronics etc... But I went briefly to see Lisa Knapp – and left after about three numbers. Nice voice, but a shade too light for my taste and the performance did not hit any emotional resonators. The sound did not help either. No question of musical ability... worthy - but dull... Maybe she would be better heard in a more intimate club situation? . The problem being, I suppose, for a festival as overwhelmingly dedicated to orthodox traditional singing, if they brought in some of the current movers and shakers who are revitalising folk musics here and in the U.S.A., these may well be too far out for the audience they have, given the overall demographics of the musical comfort zone. Maybe not - it would be nice to see how Directing Hand, say, or Hush Arbors, to name but two at random, would fare in this situation...
The above comments do not mean that I have a dislike of traditional music. Far from it...the next session I attended was the 'Loughborough Tradition' singaround in the council chamber (so this is where they plan the wasting my council tax? Hmmm... Empty my bins weekly, you bastards!). Will Noble and John Cocking, the Orchard Family, Jeff Wesley were truly outstanding – although, and just by a whisker – Mike Waterson and Louie Killen took the overall prize for me. But this was not a contest - they were all good. The understated power and subtle emotions grabbed me mightily. But, hey, next time – turn the overhead searchlights off! An awareness of more professional lighting would have helped the overall ambiance. Too piercing, man, to quote the immortal Stan Freberg... Still, a masterclass...
So at last to Waterson-Carthy..... The Watersons were an old love of mine from when they first surfaced, way back in the folk day. Because he has been around for so long as well, Carthy you can take for granted - at your peril. Although he looked rough and was, apparently, suffering from a bad cold (much resort to tissues throughout!), in tandem with his wife and the younger duo - Saul Rose and Liza – he delivered a performance that was professional in the best sense of accomplished rather than slick, and powerfully emotional. They seemed to be firing on all cylinders – Norma Waterson and her blow-torch of a voice with her daughter alongside giving out the high-octane full-tilt folk boogie – interesting to see the familial similarity in hand gestures as they both reached out expansively, music of the body and heart as much as the brain, as if the songs they delivered were so deeply felt and embedded that they were being wrenched out of their physical being. Operating on a continuum that signalled back to the beginnings of the revival on the hotwire to the tradition – and forward in gestures of renewal - this was, yes a sentimental night on one level – but also fresh, vibrant – and fun, proving what can be achieved still in the mainstream of English folk. One number – missed the title, but chorus 'I wish that the war was over' - showed how an old song can still have relevance. The contemporary point wasn't jabbed in your face in a party-political or sectarian way but understated – which made it all the more poignant. The instrumentals were swung and bounced mightily – Saul Rose making a strong contribution here especially, (as he did throughout) coupled to Liza's violin, Carthy Senior's subtle guitar weaving in and out and solid underneath as and when necessary. And the vocals – Martin, assured and understated yet coming from deep inside the songs, buttressed by his wife and daughter - when Norma slides up from a note, in a melisma worthy of that other great diva Aretha – or Vanessa Bell Armstrong - she raises up the hairs on the back of my neck – ditto her daughter. Passionate heartfelt music.
Sunday
Arrived to check out the Morris crew – a colourful sight on a bright, sharp Sunday afternoon. They were led up the street by a posse of young skate-boarders which made me smile – I wondered if they were part of the processional dance, Skate Morris anyone? Skate Morris punks? Some local Arts initiative to involve da local youth? Perhaps not... But a nice thought... Launching a new genre of music as well?
If the Watersons were one of the definitive groups that inculcated an interest in folk music for me back in the sixties, so too were their southern counterparts, the Copper Family. Both of whom proved, it seemed, that despite the overall cultural sidelining of traditional music in England, some musical strands, frayed though they may well have been, still linked us to previous generations. In 2008, to see these sons and daughter – the Young Coppers - continue in their family singing tradition was fascinating – and moving. It may seem almost perverse that, in a crowded and mainly urban country, so many of our rural songs, as exemplified by the Coppers collection, still speak to us so clearly. Maybe this is more my hearing of it, filtered through those earlier memories, but these songs evoke a particular place as well as time – an area that admittedly I know well, which gives added resonance. A superb and relaxed performance that overrode some small criticisms. It was pointed out to me, for example, by a friend and local singer that six voices might clutter the songs' harmonies– a valid observation, although I think that, in places, the lines benefited from that added thickening because of the relative youth of the singers. And any overlap gave the music a spontaneous edge, a loose feeling - almost harmolodic, to use a term from another genre - that benefits this style of singing. Anyway, age and experience will broaden and deepen the timbres to the warm depths and breadths of their forefathers. And the occasional mistake actually added to the easy manner in which material was introduced and set in personal and broader context – not a dry lecture on 'heritage' but a demonstration of persistence. And a subtle frame for what much 'folk music' once was – people gathered to sing in an unselfconscious way. These songs are not ready to die yet...
The Sussex link continued... Actually discovered by Bob Copper and following his family today, Shirley Collins delivered her extraordinary show 'America over the Water,' an account of her journey with Alan Lomax through America in 1959, the readings from her book interlaced with images and extracts from the original recordings, aided by actor Pip Barnes, who ventriloquised the various American voices superbly. Clocking in at nearly two hours, including an interval, it meant that if I stayed I would miss a large chunk of Eliza Carthy's set. No contest. Eliza I could no doubt see again – Shirley Collins is a unique presence, my favourite singer in the English tradition and a sharp-witted commentator on the same. Which meant there was no way I would move before the end as I witnessed a superb evocation of rural America at the end of the fifties: closed and often isolated communities of poor but culturally and politically dominant whites and segregated blacks, suspicious of each other (de jure segregation may have been ended in 1954 with the Supreme Court ruling on Brown v Board of Education but...); the strong role of religion in both, ironically not acting as a bridge between them; the fervour of both spiritual and secular forces expressed through their musics; the songs that could be traced back to the British Isles and to Africa. The sheer weirdness... Heady stuff. A history lesson from one of the stalwarts of the English revival whose good-humoured forward-looking presence back then acted as a strong counterbalance to the bossy purist commissars of the day. Some marvellous musical examples spiced the show, further illustrated by a haunting succession of black and white photographs – over all of which, arguably, towered the majestic presence of Fred McDowell, a star in the making. My friend Nigel scored a coup – by getting the Shirley Collins autograph on his old vinyl copy of Fred McDowell recordings... reproduced below.
Heady stuff, vastly enjoyable and much future food for thought, delivered with charm, grace and a sparkling humour...
Overall, then, a fascinating weekend, the traditional bias counterbalanced by the quality of the music and overall good humour. The venue was up for the task, the staff helpful, the catering and drinks side reasonably priced and available all hours, the one session I attended off-site was a great success. Hats off to the organisers. And I may have invented a new genre: Skate Punk Morris. Wonder if Jello Biafra is interested in a new project?
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