Review: Rain fails to dampen spirits on day four of the Cambridge Folk Festival

In years gone by, I’ve tended to go later in the day to catch the headline acts at the Cambridge Folk Festival, as I don’t like traditional folk music enough to be able to sit through hours and hours of it (I’m more of a traditional country fan myself).

However, this year was different as one of the main acts I wanted to see kicked off the proceedings on stage one on Sunday, July 30.

His name is William Prince and he’s an indigenous Canadian country/folk singer from Winnipeg, Manitoba, who earlier this year performed at the famed Grand Ole Opry in Nashville, Tennessee, for the first time.

For the first artist of the day, there was a pretty good crowd in attendance, happily absorbing the singer’s likeable demeanour and warm tones, which at times reminded me of his fellow Canadian, the late, great Gordon Lightfoot.

On stage with just his acoustic guitar, Prince rattled through songs from his three albums to date, including my favourites from his latest release, the masterful Stand in the Joy: Pasadena, Easier and Harder and Peace of Mind.

His material dealt with subjects such as love, time and finding happiness in simple pleasures – and there were also songs about Elvis, Goldie Hawn and the late, great John Prine, a Cambridge Folk Festival favourite.

Throughout Prince’s hour-long set, a lady standing in front of me was sketching on a pad, clearly inspired by what she was witnessing.

When I approached her afterwards to ask if I could take a picture of her drawings for my review, she turned around and I could see that she’d been crying, understandably moved by what had been an amazing Folk Festival debut from this talented singer-songwriter.

There was also a healthy queue at the signing tent later on with many people clutching a vinyl copy of Stand in the Joy. One hopes Prince will be back at Cherry Hinton Hall in the future – maybe with a full band next time.

The next act I saw, also on the main stage, was Judy Collins, appearing in the ‘US Folk Legend’ slot. “You’re looking at the American Idol 1956,” joked the New York-based songstress, looking good in a dark pink dress and long, black sparkly jacket.

Backed by the impressive Unity String Quartet, Collins was celebrating her landmark 1967 album Wildflowers by performing it in its entirety – or at least that was the intention!

The songs sounded as great as ever – particularly Joni Mitchell’s Both Sides Now – and, while her voice faltered a little at times, the octogenarian singer – a great-grandmother – still turned in a solid performance.

While her various jokes and anecdotes, a number of which involved Leonard Cohen, were often funny, her between-song banter went on too long each time, meaning that Judy ran out of time and unfortunately didn’t get through the whole album.

As a parting shot, she asked the crowd to join her in a rendition of Amazing Grace, which we carried on singing as she left the stage, the sound of rapturous applause still ringing in her ears.

While Judy Collins was very well received, there may have been some in the audience who were looking for something a bit more uptempo and it duly came when iconic singing collective Fisherman’s Friends – appearing in the ‘UK Folk Legend’ slot – took to the stage. I had heard them practising backstage when I went to the toilet and knew we were in for a real treat.

The eight-strong collective turned in a rollicking performance with their infectious sea shanties, which covered themes such as death at sea, drinking and Cornish pride.

Joking about the lack of ‘diversity’ in the group, singer and all-round funny guy, Jon Cleave, announced that their newest member “has long hair and he’s a vegetarian”, adding: “We though of adding a vegan but then we thought, nah.” Fisherman’s Friends were a real highlight and I would strongly recommend going to see them.

Up next on stage one was Kiefer Sutherland. Sounding more southern rock than folk or country – although there were elements of country rock at times – after the first couple of songs, particularly the second Can't Stay Away, I thought I was going to really enjoy the gig.

However, I found a number of the tracks to be rather ordinary, and I think the loud, in-your-face nature of some of the songs was a bit much for some, whom I could see leaving the tent.

The tent also seemed noticeably less full than it had been for Fisherman’s Friends, although that could have been due to the rain...

Sutherland, who is also a famous actor of course (as well as a former professional rodeo rider, something I was previously unaware of), succeeded in getting things back on track with an outstanding cover of Patty Loveless’s Blame It on Your Heart, which had people up and grooving. Patty Loveless is someone I’d love to see at the Cambridge Folk Festival. Please organisers, make it happen!

Down the Line, a song off Sutherland’s latest album Bloor Street, was also excellent. When it was time to go, the grateful star expressed his thanks “from the bottom of our hearts”, generating another warm response.

I went out to get some food at this point – eventually opting for a tasty Tibetan curry from Taste Tibet (tastetibet.com) – and by this time it was raining quite heavily.

Returning to the main stage, 90s dancefloor smash Freed from Desire could be heard blaring out over the sound system and I could see quite a few people up and dancing, determined to not let the rain spoil their day.

The dancing continued for the next act, Elephant Sessions, a fiery Scottish quintet who fuse traditional folk music with rock and electronica.

We left the main stage to wander over to stage two to see Catrin Finch and Cimarrón and could see more people dancing to Elephant Sessions as we made our way across the now-muddy terrain.

The pairing between Welsh harpist Catrin Finch and colourful Colombian collective Cimarrón was an absolute revelation. Having spoken to singer Ana Veydó a few weeks ago, I had some idea of what to expect – but I could see and hear that many of those around me who pre-show had been completely unaware of what they were about to witness were left in a state of complete awe.

Whether it was Ana’s amazing outfits and emotive singing, the breathtaking musicianship – and energetic ‘stomp’ dancing – of the young men in the band, or Catrin’s sublime harp playing, this was a jaw-dropping all-round showing and easily one of the standout moments in the day for me. At one point, Catrin even came out from behind her harp, donned a cowboy hat and joined in the dancing!

Before leaving, we caught some of Le Vent du Nord’s gig, also on stage two (Angélique Kidjo and headliner Imelda May, who paid tribute to her friend Sinéad O'Connor, rounded off the entertainment over on stage one). O’Connor herself played the festival back in 2014.

In keeping with much of what we had seen over the previous eight hours or so, “energy” was the key word as this Canadian folk music group from Quebec took the traditional folk sound and again ‘upped the ante’. Needless to say, the dancing continued.

[Read more: Cambridge Folk Festival 2023 Friday review: Highlights from across the musical rainbow, Colombian collective Cimarrón to bring colour to this year’s Cambridge Folk Festival, Judy Collins heads to Cambridge Folk Festival: ‘Leonard Cohen was the one who urged me to write songs’, Singer-songwriter William Prince: From the Grand Ole Opry to the Cambridge Folk Festival]

This was fine by me as while there are those who would like to see more “singers with a guitar emoting about social issues”, to quote my esteemed colleague Mike Scialom, I am definitely not one of them!