Post-Cambridge Folk Festival Music Recommendations
So, there was a Folk Festival. I spent around thirty hours there over four days, and saw almost that many different acts. There were many incredible moments and some dull ones, nice food, nice drink, lots of people, a fiona_kitty from time to time and it was generally a huge amount of fun, though I was pretty much Festival-ed out by Sunday evening.
This post is a collection of awesome memories and music recomendations.
Thursday
Memory: Shouting "Rock, Paper, Scissors, which one is it? Your decision" at Stage 2 as Marianne Sveen turned the microphone around to point at us. (Most of my memories will be audience participation related, because singing along with a huge crowd is a memorable experience. Christianity figured this one out pretty rapidly so I don't see why I can't say it too...)
Band rec: Katzenjammer. Normally at this point I'd try and tell you what genre they were in, but, um, they're kind of not in the same one from song to song. It's all pretty much amazing though. One of my better attempts at a description started "If the Levellers were female and Norweigan....". That sentence was mostly inspired by this (the song from the memory), which has a particularly Levellers-esque banjo riff with drums composition to it, but they've also got this in their discography which could have almost come straight out of the 1920s. They're playing the Junction in November - I'm going and I'd recommend it to anybody else who feels like some music on a Monday evening.
Friday
Memories: "That way lies disaster". fiona_kitty has learned from her mistakes, at least where they involve attempts to eat steak sandwiches at Cambridge festivals.
"Da lat da?" "Da lat da" "Da lat da?" "Da lat da". The Proclaimers turn the chorus of I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles), into question-and-answer for the final song of the day, and it turns out that the Festival knows this one.
Band rec-and-a-half: Honorable mentions to Canzoniere Grecanico Salentino, if you want fast mostly-instrumental and very Italian music; I enjoyed it but probably not enough to buy it, and to Frank Turner, whose music I do like but need to spend a bit longer with to get the full value out of, because I'm not quite hearing all of it properly yet. Blackbeard's Tea Party, though, were just a lot of fun the first time I heard them. They were actually doing a ceilidh at the Festival and that was a lot of fun, but the music's also great just to listen to. Mostly instrumental, again, but occasionally not (to be fair, I'm not sure I think they have a vocalist who makes sung music worth it - Bellowhead's version of that song is a lot better).
Saturday
Memories: "As we travel, we like to collect songs from around the country. We found this one in South Wales, where they've been singing it for, oh, about ten years now. There's many versions, this is ours..." Steve Knightley introduces Show of Hands' cover of Stereophonics' Dakota.
"The only way is up, Baby, for you and me now..." Yes, somebody actually did a Yazz cover. Somebody was Stornoway, and yes, the crowd joined in. It was fun, and probably somewhat more musical than the original.
And actually pretty much all of Boom went the Bittern, an honest-to-god patter song from Stornoway about bird calls. Amazing stuff, I don't think it'll ever make it onto anything officially Stornoway because they basically regard it as a children's song, but the RSPB put it up here and isn't it awesome?
Band recs: Stornoway. If I had to put Stornoway into a genre, I'd say they were a Britpop band, despite the chronological implausibility of this. But yeah, they remind me of one of the more thoughtful bands of the mid-to-late 1990s, or Radiohead or Travis in their early days. The music does require a bit of listening to - I'm not sure all of it is great background music, but probably good for driving or similar. Here, let's go Zorbing.
I think most of you already know that I love Show of Hands but it deserves repeating that a) they're awesome, probably my favourite band more often than not and b) they're an even better live act than they are just to listen to, in large part because of Steve Knightley's engaging stage presence (..."and then they used our crowd shot for some other band's applause!"). They appeared twice on Saturday and I got to hear live some songs I'd previously only heard recorded, including The Blue Cockade (warning: overamplified. Turn the volume down on Youtube) which was about the last song on my SoH bucket list of songs to see live.
Honorable mention to Shooglenifty, who had the misfortune to be sandwiched between Stornoway and Show of Hands and who I'd probably have been really impressed with if they'd appeared at some other time.
Sunday
Memories: Completely failing to find fiona_kitty for like an hour. Though I was only actively worried about her for a small amount of that time it did feel like a large part of it.
"This song's a bit downcast, so you might want to dance around a bit or something to keep your spirits up." The Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain introduce their version of Pharrell Williams' Happy.
Both not wanting to leave and not really feeling like staying was worth it around 9pm (I left, in the end).
Band recs: De Temps Antan translates as "of olden times" and play Quebecois folk music. It's fast, it's fun, it's the sort of thing you listen to when you want music to give you a bit of energy (that works for other people, right?). I was fed up of standing up when I arrived for their set and they still had me on my feet inside ten minutes. (I do, of course, have a soft spot for fiddlers who know their way around a stomp box, see Lakeman, Seth).
This post is a collection of awesome memories and music recomendations.
Thursday
Memory: Shouting "Rock, Paper, Scissors, which one is it? Your decision" at Stage 2 as Marianne Sveen turned the microphone around to point at us. (Most of my memories will be audience participation related, because singing along with a huge crowd is a memorable experience. Christianity figured this one out pretty rapidly so I don't see why I can't say it too...)
Band rec: Katzenjammer. Normally at this point I'd try and tell you what genre they were in, but, um, they're kind of not in the same one from song to song. It's all pretty much amazing though. One of my better attempts at a description started "If the Levellers were female and Norweigan....". That sentence was mostly inspired by this (the song from the memory), which has a particularly Levellers-esque banjo riff with drums composition to it, but they've also got this in their discography which could have almost come straight out of the 1920s. They're playing the Junction in November - I'm going and I'd recommend it to anybody else who feels like some music on a Monday evening.
Friday
Memories: "That way lies disaster". fiona_kitty has learned from her mistakes, at least where they involve attempts to eat steak sandwiches at Cambridge festivals.
"Da lat da?" "Da lat da" "Da lat da?" "Da lat da". The Proclaimers turn the chorus of I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles), into question-and-answer for the final song of the day, and it turns out that the Festival knows this one.
Band rec-and-a-half: Honorable mentions to Canzoniere Grecanico Salentino, if you want fast mostly-instrumental and very Italian music; I enjoyed it but probably not enough to buy it, and to Frank Turner, whose music I do like but need to spend a bit longer with to get the full value out of, because I'm not quite hearing all of it properly yet. Blackbeard's Tea Party, though, were just a lot of fun the first time I heard them. They were actually doing a ceilidh at the Festival and that was a lot of fun, but the music's also great just to listen to. Mostly instrumental, again, but occasionally not (to be fair, I'm not sure I think they have a vocalist who makes sung music worth it - Bellowhead's version of that song is a lot better).
Saturday
Memories: "As we travel, we like to collect songs from around the country. We found this one in South Wales, where they've been singing it for, oh, about ten years now. There's many versions, this is ours..." Steve Knightley introduces Show of Hands' cover of Stereophonics' Dakota.
"The only way is up, Baby, for you and me now..." Yes, somebody actually did a Yazz cover. Somebody was Stornoway, and yes, the crowd joined in. It was fun, and probably somewhat more musical than the original.
And actually pretty much all of Boom went the Bittern, an honest-to-god patter song from Stornoway about bird calls. Amazing stuff, I don't think it'll ever make it onto anything officially Stornoway because they basically regard it as a children's song, but the RSPB put it up here and isn't it awesome?
Band recs: Stornoway. If I had to put Stornoway into a genre, I'd say they were a Britpop band, despite the chronological implausibility of this. But yeah, they remind me of one of the more thoughtful bands of the mid-to-late 1990s, or Radiohead or Travis in their early days. The music does require a bit of listening to - I'm not sure all of it is great background music, but probably good for driving or similar. Here, let's go Zorbing.
I think most of you already know that I love Show of Hands but it deserves repeating that a) they're awesome, probably my favourite band more often than not and b) they're an even better live act than they are just to listen to, in large part because of Steve Knightley's engaging stage presence (..."and then they used our crowd shot for some other band's applause!"). They appeared twice on Saturday and I got to hear live some songs I'd previously only heard recorded, including The Blue Cockade (warning: overamplified. Turn the volume down on Youtube) which was about the last song on my SoH bucket list of songs to see live.
Honorable mention to Shooglenifty, who had the misfortune to be sandwiched between Stornoway and Show of Hands and who I'd probably have been really impressed with if they'd appeared at some other time.
Sunday
Memories: Completely failing to find fiona_kitty for like an hour. Though I was only actively worried about her for a small amount of that time it did feel like a large part of it.
"This song's a bit downcast, so you might want to dance around a bit or something to keep your spirits up." The Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain introduce their version of Pharrell Williams' Happy.
Both not wanting to leave and not really feeling like staying was worth it around 9pm (I left, in the end).
Band recs: De Temps Antan translates as "of olden times" and play Quebecois folk music. It's fast, it's fun, it's the sort of thing you listen to when you want music to give you a bit of energy (that works for other people, right?). I was fed up of standing up when I arrived for their set and they still had me on my feet inside ten minutes. (I do, of course, have a soft spot for fiddlers who know their way around a stomp box, see Lakeman, Seth).