Plenty of musical variety on day three of Cambridge Folk Festival 2024

After visiting on Saturday, Adrian Peel delivers his verdict from Cambridge Folk Festival.

I arrived at Cherry Hinton Hall for the Cambridge Folk Festival shortly after the Transatlantic Sessions, a large collective made up of musicians from the British Isles and the USA and Canada, had started their set. As I was walking past the familiar rows of people on fold-up chairs (some of whom were doing The Guardian crossword) to get to the stage, I could see Transatlantic Sessions bandleader and dobro player extraordinaire Jerry Douglas jamming furiously on the big screen with Australian guitar icon Tommy Emmanuel.

I wasn’t sure what song they were ‘rocking out’ to, but it sounded a bit like James Taylor’s Carolina in My Mind speeded up. Unfortunately, the setlist hasn’t been uploaded to Setlist.fm so I may never know (answers in the comments section please).

There followed a mix of traditional Irish and Scottish music and some Americana and bluegrass-esque tunes, some instrumentals and some sung by guest vocalists, who included Karen Matheson, Aoife O’Donovan, and Niall McCabe (the latter’s gorgeous contribution, Stonemason, was my pick of the bunch).

“I sounded pretty good,” joked Jerry Douglas, a 16-time Grammy Award winner and a member of Alison Krauss’ celebrated backing band Union Station, after performing a song with American singer-songwriter Aoife O’Donovan, “but Aoife sounded better.”

The set was enjoyable but I would like to have heard more of Jerry’s dobro. It’s such a wonderful instrument and adds something extra special to any song on which it appears (listen to Alison Krauss & Union Station’s entire back catalogue for emphatic confirmation of this).

I was also waiting to hear something a bit more ‘country’, something with a bit more ‘oomph’, and it duly came with Tommy Emmanuel singing a storming version of Mind Your Own Business, a song written by the King of Country, Hank Williams.

This call-and-response classic got the crowd enthusiastically singing along, and Tommy also delivered a breathtaking guitar solo about halfway through. More of that kind of thing would have been ideal!

As it was, it was a pleasant way to spend an hour at the festival and the virtuosic talent of the seasoned pros on stage - which also included Aly Bain, Phil Cunningham and John Doyle - certainly cannot be called into question.

It was also nice to see the musicians’ warm camaraderie and shared mutual respect for each other’s considerable talents.

I’d love to see Jerry come back next year - but this time with Alison and co, if possible. I believe the last time Alison Krauss & Union Station played the Cambridge Folk Festival - for the one and only time - was nearly 30 years ago, in 1996, so I think it’s about time they were invited back!

I wandered over to Stage 2 to see what was going on over there. It was packed out for Korean trio Sangjaru. “We play traditional Korean music,” said guitarist Cho Sungyoon, addressing the highly appreciative audience, “so I guess that means we can participate [in the festival].” Cue much cheering.

The music wasn’t really for me, however, so I walked back over to the Main Stage, where American indie folk quartet Darlingside were up next.

In previous years, I’ve tended to keep myself to myself and just watch the acts, but this year I knew more people who were in attendance and was chatting to the friend of a friend while seated on a blanket as Darlingside began their set.

It’s heartwarming in a way to know that there are so many ‘regulars’ who have been coming to the festival for years - and here I was talking to some of them and finding out how they feel the event’s changed etc.

I did go in for a closer look while the band were playing, though, and was very impressed with what I saw, as were the crowd who had packed into the space to see these talented Bostonians. I wouldn’t be surprised to see Darlingside even higher up on the bill next time.

After going to get something to eat - I can strongly recommend the steak and chips served up by Aroma Brazilian Grill - and walking around and chatting a bit more, I settled into a seat next to the stage for Turin Brakes, the popular folk rock band from South London whose debut album, 2001’s The Optimist LP, was nominated for the Mercury Music Prize.

The likeable quartet started strongly, expertly - and aptly, given where we were - working Pink Floyd’s Breathe into the melodic The Door early on.

Frontman Olly Knights recalled writing the tender Future Boy at the age of 16 while waiting for a train at Pimlico tube station. “It’s a simple song, but we’re simple people,” joked bass player Eddie Myer.

Guitarist Gale Paridjanian compared the tuneful Something in My Eye to Coldplay but joked: “It’s better than Coldplay” and then added, mischievously: “We’re younger than Coldplay”.

In contrast to the down-to-earth ‘Englishness’ of Turin Brakes, Rebecca Lovell, singer and guitarist with the day’s final act on Stage 1, Larkin Poe, spoke more about “music bringing us all together” and being a “universal language”. Still, that’s not to detract from the band’s excellent - and highly energetic - performance.

Larkin Poe are Georgia (USA)-born Rebecca and her sister Megan Lovell, who plays slide guitar, bass player Tarka Layman and drummer Ben Satterlee, and the Nashville, Tennessee-based group kicked off their performance with fist-pumping rocker, Summertime Sunset.

It was followed by a classy cover of Jessica, a timeless instrumental by southern rock royalty, The Allman Brothers Band, which was also used as the theme to popular TV show Top Gear over here in the UK.

The band’s performance consisted of storming southern rock numbers, infectious grooves, exuberant instrumentals, and slowed down blues jams, and further highlights included the sassy Strike Gold, the soulful Southern Comfort, and the explosive Wanted Woman/AC/DC.

“This is only the second time ever performed live in England, ladies and gentlemen, here at the Cambridge Folk Festival!” said Rebecca - the younger of the two sisters - of a spirited song titled Bluephoria, during which she played a lovely sparkly Fender Telecaster.

For me, the southern United States has always given us many of the very best acts in popular music, be it country and Americana or blues and southern rock, and these ladies proudly uphold that tradition - without quite being up there with the likes of Lynyrd Skynyrd and the aforementioned Allman Brothers Band.

Their inclusion also left me hoping that perhaps next year - or at some point in the future - we might see the likes of fellow Georgians The Black Crowes or Blackberry Smoke grace the Cambridge Folk Festival stage.

On their last song, the stonkingly electric Bolt Cutters & The Family Name, the sisters got the crowd singing its catchy “woo woo, yeah, yeah, yeah” refrain and, as we walked out of the large tent into the cool July night, the sight of many people still singing it on their way to the exit made me feel thankful that I’d been there.

If the closing act on Sunday (28 July) is this good, festival-goers are in for a real treat.

For more information on Cambridge Folk Festival, visit cambridgelive.org.uk/folk-festival.