Folk review: The Co-operative Cambridge Folk Festival

Published on Tuesday 2 February 2010 09:02

THE CO-OPERATIVE CAMBRIDGE FOLK FESTIVAL CHERRY HINTON HALL, CAMBRIDGE

A ROBUST, dynamic dialogue between tradition and innovation, familiarity and surprise is surely the very life-blood of a healthy folk culture, and certainly intrinsic to the Cambridge Folk Festival's longtime worldwide renown.

So much about the event remains blissfully unchanged year after year: the site layout, the precision-honed organisation, the uniquely mellow, tuned-in ambience, and many regulars' annual choice of camping spot.

And yet there was this same crowd, as staunchly protective of such traditions as any genre stereotype would purport, beside themselves with delight at the fabulously camp, wickedly louche, exquisitely executed lounge-core sophistication of Oregon 12-piece Pink Martini.

And there was eight-piece Scottish supergroup The Burns Unit, uniting such diverse luminaries as King Creosote, Karine Polwart, Emma Pollock and Future Pilot AKA.

Launching their debut album Side Show, and heading up this year's official Scotland at Cambridge showcase – funded by Creative Scotland – they delivered a brilliantly adventurous, sumptuously harmonised mash-up of pop, rock, rap, indie and alternative sounds.

Mostly, though, the 2010 Scottish delegation was more recognisably folky – which isn't to imply any concomitant lack of quality, excitement, or engagement in that past/present dialogue.

Gaelic singer Julie Fowlis, after all, has probably done more than anyone to rebrand her native culture for the 21st century, here turning in a pair of immaculately polished yet sparklingly vivacious performances.

The young Highland quintet Breabach embellished their taut, instrumentals and artful ballad selection with myriad fresh rhythmic and textural twists, although a sadly under-strength Unusual Suspects failed to repeat the revelatory triumph of their previous visit five years ago.

Other mesmerising and/or euphoria-inducing highlights of an even more wondrously varied Cambridge line-up than usual included: the big-hearted, bare-knuckle, one-man heavy metal of ex-hobo bluesman Seasick Steve; The Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain's marvellous deadpan wit and finesse; Spiro's magically virtuosic, minutely calibrated trance-folk; and a joyously uplifting, terrifically impassioned set from soul/gospel veterans The Holmes Brothers.