Shrewsbury Folk Festival Preview - Ten Top Artists

Well, with around a month to go until Shrewsbury Folk Festival, ALL tickets are sold! For those of you not lucky enough to be going, though, don't despair - the main stage will be broadcast live on the festival website, while there's also the opportunity to catch some of the acts in the town of Shrewsbury itself as they play various pubs. (From memory, the Bird in the Hand, the Britannia, and at least two others which I've completely blanked out on had festival acts on last year, while other pubs joined in the spirit by having other acts or singarounds.)

Here are 10 of the acts I'm really looking forward to seeing.

BarlowCree (Sunday/Monday) - Last year's open mic winners - having won a quite frankly incredible contest which saw them beat Tri, Kaleidoscope, and the Bailey Sisters in a competition I was very glad I didn't have to judge. They took the prize of a set in the Boxfresh Marquee and came close to stealing the show from a lot of established acts I saw with a combination of wonderful originals and an excellent cover of Show of Hands' Cousin Jack.

Bellowhead (Friday) - I've somehow never seen Bellowhead live despite having been to two festivals where they were playing. This year is the one that will change that for me - barring mishaps! - and am really looking forward to it.
                                                           
Cecil Sharp Project (Sunday) - I was lucky enough to see the first performance of this in Theatre Severn in Shrewsbury earlier this year - WOW! Similar to the Darwin Song Project 2 years ago at SFF, some very talented musicians got together to write some songs and tunes inspired by Cecil Sharp, and create their own versions of some of the songs that he collected. The line-up is stellar - Steve Knightley of Show of Hands, Patsy Reid from Brebach, Jackie Oates, Jim Moray, Kathryn Roberts, Andy Cutting, Caroline Herring and Leonard Podolak - and the group had an incredible chemistry considering just how quickly they'd put everything together. I went to the show in Theatre Severn thinking that it would free up some time at SFF for the inevitable clash with another act but will almost certainly end up watching this again, I loved it so much.

Demon Barber Roadshow (Friday) - Another act with a red hot reputation as superb live performers who I haven't managed to see yet. I have a horrible feeling they'll clash with Bellowhead - fingers crossed I get to see them both!

Martyn Joseph (Saturday) - Have heard relatively little of MJ but the rest of my family saw him at Llangollen International Musical Eisteddfod a couple of weeks ago and have been raving about him ever since. Not intending on missing him this time around!

Jim Moray (Saturday) - I'm a bigger fan of Jim Moray's first album than his more recent ones but there's no doubt that he's a breath of fresh air on the folk scene today. Great music and a wonderful voice. 

Oysterband + Special Guests (Monday) - I have no idea who the special guests are, but with former member Chris Wood and past collaborators Jim Moray and Show of Hands amongst the artists appearing at
the festival there's potential for some amazing combinations here to give us an incredible finale.

Show of Hands (Saturday) - I've seen SoH three or four times live now and they just get better and better.

I've always loved certain tracks - Cousin Jack, Roots, Undertow and The Blue Cockade being probably my favourite four from earlier albums - but Arrogance Ignorance and Greed blew me away with virtually every song being amazing. Complete speculation from me - given Jackie Oates has toured and recorded with Show of Hands, will definitely be in Shrewsbury the following day for the Cecil Sharp Project, and is guesting with them at Sidmouth, could we be lucky enough to see her in this set as well? We can always hope!

Lucy Ward (Sunday/Monday) - Lucy is one of my very favourite folk singers currently around, and has only gone up in my estimation since releasing a superb debut album (which I reviewed last week.) Her two sets last year, at the festival itself and theBird in t he Hand, were two of my personal highlights of SFF and I'm sure we'll get more of the same this time around. 

The Younguns (Sunday/Monday) - I bought the Younguns album last year on the strength of superb performances at Warwick and Shrewsbury and it's kept popping up as something to listen to occasionally, but to be honest, nothing can match seeing this trio in person. Combining superb acapella vocals with brilliant stage presence and great banter with the crowd  they're a must-see live act. Again, they were superb at the festival last year but arguably even better in an absolutely crammed full Bird in the Hand..

Review: Adelphi Has To Fly by Lucy Ward

Lucy Ward's debut album, Adelphi Has To Fly, has been eagerly awaited by me since it was first announced after she blew me away with 2 incredible sets of virtually completely different songs at Shrewsbury Folk Festival last year. Thankfully, this CD certainly didn't disappoint! It's bookended by the two best tracks - a simply gorgeous version of Samuel Lover's Fairy Boy which starts off acappella and picks up a few notes on piano from Belinda O'Hooley, whose playing sets off Lucy's voice beautifully, and the self-penned Bricks and Love, featuring the chorus of the Eriskay Love Lilt. However while this pair are my favourite songs, that's certainly not to say there's any lack of quality in between them - her tune to the old Tudor song Death (Rock Me To Sleep), possibly written by Anne Boleyn (depending on who you listen to) is superb, and the other songs she wrote herself are all impressive, with a welcome reappearance of the song she wrote for the excellent Derbyshire music Mills and Chimneys project, Alice in the Bacon Box.

A special mention to Stu Hanna's production, which never fails to highlight just how beautiful Lucy's voice is, and avoids overshadowing it at any points, and to the excellent standard of musicianship - which is to be expected, given the people playing on the album include Hanna himself and his wife Debbie, better known as the duo Megson, and another superb pairing in O'Hooley and Tidow.

For the chance to sample Lucy's exquisite voice for yourself, check out her Myspace which included clips of Fairy Boy, Alice in the Bacon Box, and Adelphi, as well as a wide selection of covers ranging from Blur's Tender to Dolly Parton's Jolene by way of the Nine Inch Nails classic Hurt - which she puts her own spin on, successfully making it really different from both the original and the acclaimed Johnny Cash version.

Full track listing

1. The Fairy Boy
2. Alice In The Bacon Box
3. Maids When You’re Young
4. Death (Rock Me To Sleep)
5. The Unfortunate Lass
6. Julia
7. The Two Sisters
8. Adelphi
9. F For Love
10. A Stitch In Time
11. Bricks & Love

Live Review: 4Square Saturday 9th July

After spending weeks contemplating starting a folk music blog, I've finally been pushed into it so I can kick things off with a review of the fabulous 4Square at Llangollen's International Musical Eisteddfod on Saturday 9th July. Having seen them twice at Warwick last year - following up a great performance at the folk festival itself with an even better one in the town square as part of the festival - they'd quickly become one of my favourite live acts on the folk scene and I'd recommended them to several people when I'd heard they were playing so close to me. Thankfully, I wasn't disappointed - except for an aborted first set as they were stopped from playing due to complaints that the drum was disturbing the competitions in the main marquee! - and they performed a set packed full of great tunes with their usual excellent playing and fantastic stage presence.

As those of us lucky enough to have attended their sets before now, 4Square shows tend to be heavy on the audience participation and they were keen to get the crowd here involved. I have to say that even with Jim Molyneux's easy charisma and encouragement of them to join in on numbers like 'Egypt' and 'Latin' this seemed to be a bit too much for many visitors to the Eisteddfod to cope with and there wasn't as much enthusiasm as I was hoping for from the seats during the previous two numbers - but the crowd definitely redeemed themselves with some superb pirate noises during a loud and infectious performance of 'Beatrice', probably my favourite of the group's many instrumentals.

The true highlight of the day for me, though, was an absolutely exceptional performance of Pete Scrowther's gorgeous 'Lily of Barbary', definitely my favourite track from their two albums so far. The harmonies in this one are always sheer bliss and Scrowther's wonderful lyrics captured the imagination of the audience (although I could swear I could see people puzzled by the lack of a tragic ending given that it's a folk song!)

Musically, as always, the quartet were superb all the way through and Nicola Lyons's clog dancing was also brilliant. High recommendation as one of my absolute favourite live acts - and thankfully the people I'd said this to before Saturday all loved them as well!

For more from this talented group of youngsters check out their website or drummer Dan Day's Youtube channel. (If nothing else, at least take a look at James Meadows and his incredible hair!)