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Bournemouth Folk Festival

Venue: BIC
Town: Bournemouth
Date: 23rd-24th March
Website: http://www.bournemouthfolkfestival.co.uk

Saturday

Time for a change of pace and a visit to the Purbeck lounge for a couple of artists that I've been looking forward to, Ed Mortimer in Take Thakray mode and former Young Folk Award winner, Megan Henwood, who was also a runner up for this year's Radio 2 Horizon Award.

Jake Thakray made literary thousands of tv and radio performances, with a good number of those featuring the only airing of a particular song. That was partly down to his having to write a topical song for that given week's appearance. He has a vast canon of work, much of it funny it nature, all it witty and sharp.

It's great to see the like of Ed Mortimer keeping the Thakray tradition alive. The songs are difficult to put into a show on their own so airplay for the catalogue is not what it should be, often limited to occasional documentaries.

Mortimer, himself, is quite some performer, capturing all of the inclinations, pausing long enough for a double entendre to ripple around the audience, without making the song seem bitty. There's a twinkle in his eye as he performs, living and breathing the songs.

Whilst it's true there is a slight feeling of novelty to Thakray's songs today, there has always been space for humorous, observational songs and this provided an nice Oasis from the darker trends that are currently prevalent in folk music. More importantly, it's a great set from Ed, well delivered and highly entertaining.

Megan Henwood is an artist that I've kept a weather eye on over the last few years, being really impressed by her full length debut "Making Waves" when it was released last year.

Megan is part of that new wave of singer songwriters, that is taking her music into the political sphere as well as the emotional one and I'm really looking forward to hearing her again. She's joined onstage by a bass player, but unfortunately I've mislaid the piece of paper that I wrote his name on, sorry.

It's an impressive set, not least because of her relationship to the audience, you feel that she wants to make you a part of what's going on, chatting to you like an old friend, rather than as someone to introduce songs to you.

One of my favourite songs from the set, "Television", a new song to me, but one that had an instant impact, I was delighted to discover has become her new single.

There is a hippieness to her performance, a word my spell checker tells me doesn't exist, but encapsulates her well. What I mean by that is the is a beautiful sense of idealism that runs through her songs. Whilst there are a lot of singer songwriters that can see what's wrong, you get the feeling that Henwood concentrates more on what could and should be, less sitting on one's butt and more actually doing something about it.

Megan Henwood is definitely a star on the rise. She knows how to carry a performance to her audience and to get across what she wants to say. She also does it with some panache.

Bournemouth Folk festival has grown to fill the space it makes for himself. Going to two days has made it feel more like a festival. It's a great way to start off your festival season. A hearty thanks to the festival team and Bournemouth Folk club for all the time and effort they put in.

Words & Picture Neil King