Venue:
Thame, Oxfordshire
Date: 26/08/2016
The Towersey Folk Festival is 51 years old this year. You wouldn’t know it – it’s fresh as a daisy on a crown of flowers. Your correspondent was there for the day on Fri 26th Aug, and a great time was had by all. Below* I’ll tell you more about performances by: Brighde Chaimbeul, Nancy Kerr & James Fagan, Holy Moly & the Crackers, Kate Rusby and Billy Bragg.
*I write it up as I get the time!
The audience:
Grizzled folkies, tiny tots, blue-faced morris dancers, teenagers, and middle-aged middle-class ex-indie kids looking for a new set of musical thrills.
It made me think..
Festivals are a state of mind. Entering the Towersey bubble for the day was wonderful. All the people were there for the same reason: good tunes. If you’ve never been, go!
First on the gig list was BBC Radio 2 Young Folk Award Winner Brighde Chaimbeul. Brighde is a piper from the Isle of Skye, who plays both bellows-blown smallpipes and (as a finale) the highland bagpipes. She was joined on stage by her sister Mairi (an acclaimed harpist) and Innes White (outstanding on guitar). The trio played a rousing set, and the interplay between the three instruments was most effective and affecting. Highlights for me were the more doom-laden Scandinavian pieces, and the very solemn Scottish tune about (and only folk music will give you this kind of opportunity…) a cow that gets stuck in a bog.
Read more here:
http://www.towerseyfestival.com/brighde-chaimbeul-0
I wonder – what would be the modern, urban pop lyric equivalent to a folk song about a cow stuck in a bog? A delay in the underground train service? Your hard drive crashing and burning? Getting hit by a bus while playing Pokemon Go?
“It was a PokéStop, but not a Bus Stop…Hey nonny no, and a-Pokémon Go!”
(Sorry – don’t mind me, I’m only talking to myself! 🙂 )
Carry on @Locust – think you might be onto something there 🙂
“Oh Pikachu, my Pikachu, I only had a peek at you
I tried to swipe, forgot to wipe, my greasy, greasy finger!
Eyes on the screen I didn’t see the poxy bus of fate arrive
I didn’t know I’d had to throw a glance at what was happ’ning live…
Hey nonny no, and a Pokémon Gooooo!”
(Well, you did say carry on…)
It’s winner. Just needs a wintery, daylight starved tune.
Nice review BTW – don’t let my nonsense put you off!
Always fun to hear about these events in different parts of the world.
Thanks. Will cover some more acts when I get a bit of time. 🙂
Re: the Isle of Skye
I went to Skye for the first time in my life last month.
The landscape just about blew my mind. Incredible place.
Am I right in saying that quite a few Afterworders are fans of the Western Isles?
Where should we go next year? Lewis and Harris? Islay? North & South Uist? Recommend me an island or two!
You can’t choose one over another, get a MacBraynes Island Hopper and travel between em’. My preferred route would be to aim for (the) Skye, then ferry across to Harris to get up to the top of Lewis and then go the other way thru’ the Uists, Benbecula etc. If not wearying then a burst of Mull , Islay and Arran should do you fine. Takes at least a fortnight to do properly and is wonderful. Personal favourite changes, but is currently Mull. The capital town, Tobermory is vibrant, much more fun than, say, Portree or Stornoway,
Brighde Chaimbeul! What a wonderful name. I wouldn’t even dare to try and pronounce it.
Let’s have a listen to her
and her sister Mairi
The dour old gents in the first clip, all morosely nursing their pints, are marvellous. I hope there will be a bit more life if Brighde ever plays at a McMingle.
There was certainly a more lively response at Towersey 🙂
That folded-arms guy in the first clip looked determined not to enjoy himself, if at all possible.
So to Nancy Kerr and James Fagan…
I’d heard Nancy both live and recorded on the radio, but had never seen her on stage before, and what a treat it was. She is a sublime fiddler and singer, who broke through in the 90s working with fellow fiddle-player Eliza Carthy. Her musical partnership with Australian guitarist, singer and bouzouki player James Fagan has been going for over 20 years, and they are now married with kids. The pair have excellent musical chemistry, and their performance was both relaxed and good humoured, showing a level of skill that only a life on the road can produce. They are both consummate musicians and singers, and an hour in their company is sixty minutes well spent. Stand out songs were ‘The Drover’s Boy’ and ‘I Am The Fox.’ James’s bouzouki playing was incredible and blended beautifully with Nancy’s soaring fiddle and singing. (I am asking Santa for a bouzouki!)
More here:
http://www.towerseyfestival.com/sorry/artists-43
http://nancykerr.co.uk
How to explain Newcastle’s Holy Moly and the Crackers? Gypsy punk folk samba. Yeah, something like that. Gogol Bordello channeling Tom Waits and the Pogues; along those lines. HMatC are a seven piece (maybe eight, they kept moving about) good time party band, and by George they wants you to dance. Their singer, guitarist, trumpeter and cheerleader Conrad Bird leads proceedings with a restless energy that could be irritating, but is in fact infectious. His gruff Rowlf the dog vocals are made easier on the ear by fiddler and co-singer Ruth Patterson’s jazz-inflected croon. They have ballads, folk stompers and Latin grooves a-plenty all bolstered by squeeze-box, trombone, drums, bass and guitar. For me, they were the highlight of the festival – and the family went home with a New Favourite Band. Go and see them if you can, they will – without a doubt – be in a town near you very soon.
http://www.holymolyandthecrackers.com