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!)
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