Beverley Folk Festival
Beverley Folk Festival 2011
Friday June 17th - Sunday June 19th
Multiple Venues
Beverley Yorkshire
Friday - Saturday - Sunday - Gallery
Beverley Folk Festival - Sunday
Next up is another local act, albeit one that's had international exposure via her cover of Randy Newman's "Feels Like Home" featuring on the soundtrack of "My Sister's Keeper". She's also opened for a wide range of acts, including Nanci Griffith, Van Morrison and Jools Holland.
She starts by apologising for being late and then just settles down and gets on with her set. It's obvious that she's well thought of in these parts, a few smiles and some easy going banter with the audience.
I've only previously heard her music via her releases and they had impressed me enough to want to catch her set here and I'm glad I did. If anything she sounds better stripped back, just her and guitar, it focuses more attention on her voice and has a quality well worthy of attention.
There's a relaxed almost laid back feel to her performance, that verges on genuine warmth. I have one criticism and that's that I don't think there was enough range in her set. Most of the songs she performed tended around relationships and she sort of reached a plateau, albeit a high one and stayed there. In fairness that may have been down to the length of set she had been asked to perform.
It is only a minor criticism, a bit like criticising a chocolate company for making too much chocolate. Solo, she delivers songs with a real flourish and creates a delightful sense of belonging as she brings you into her songs.
One of the bands that I travelled up to see is Hull based band, Circus Envy. They are a band that have impressed the Fatea office to the point that we invited them to take part in The Fatea Showcase Sessions.
The program has them down for playing a set in the Wold Top Marquee later, but they are playing an acoustic set on the dance square in the middle of the improvised village green. I'm not sure that catching a band you're looking forward to and haven't seen live before in the raw is a good idea, but its certainly a good test, so undeterred I get myself a pint and head off outside to see what's happening.
The first thought is not a lot, there seems to be a lack of anything happening and I find myself wondering if I've been sold a pup. I'm about to head off to The World Goes Local, when a group of people turn up carrying instrument cases, Circus Envy have arrived.
As an unscheduled event it has two main disadvantages, firstly there's not a lot of people realise it's happening, secondly one of the main rivals for attention, Ewan McLennen is about to kick off in the main hall, so it really is to a select audience of family, friends and a few refugees from other tents that the band end up playing to.
I'm not saying that this is a Beatles in Hamburg or U2 at the Hope and Anchor type moment, but it was good to be there. The band confirmed themselves as being a decent self effacing acoustic pop rock band, with some deep sensibilities. Musically it might not have been the best set I've ever seen, but it was fun and certainly whet my appetite for later. It did also set me thinking about Hull bands and it occurred to me that as a city, it actually does quite well with acoustic rooted bands performing intelligently written songs.
Jessica Lawson was an artist that my only previous experience of was catching her busking, session like, over nearer the campsite. The first song she played had been on guitar, but then she switched to autoharp, which it transpired was her main instrument. Now autoharp is a much underrated instrument that seems to be making a bit of comeback. Anyhoo, Jessica mentioned that she had a set coming up at the Wold Top Marquee, so I find myself heading back into a venue that is in danger of becoming my home away from home.
Jessica Lawson is just in the process of releasing hep debut EP on Paper Plane Records. It's a self penned five tracker in a traditional style. I can't help but note that it's produced by Dan Webster who I caught yesterday. There appears to be a touch of Norwich about the East Riding music industry.
Jessica seems nervous as she's getting things together for her set. You can hear it in her voice as she talks to the audience, but as soon as she's got her autoharp on, that seems to vanish. There is something sensual about the autoharp, the way it's gripped against the body and yet at the same time it also has a bit a shielding effect.
She starts off with a bluegrass/old timey song that sounds as if it should have originated in Kentucky rather than the English East Coast, but boy what an opener, Jessica is laying herself down one hell of a marker, a mark she more than lived up for the rest of the set.
One of the few covers she performed was the Tommy Sands classic, "There Were Roses". It's a song that's been covered by the likes of Cara Dillon, Delores Keane and Joan Baez, it has to be said that Lawson more than holds her own in that company.
She's obviously enjoying herself as testified by the smile that keeps on breaking out. She swaps to guitar to perform "Molly Of The Tyne" the title track of her EP and shows herself to be no slouch on that instrument either. Jessica Lawson, with the right breaks, is a star in the making, she certainly had a major impact on the audience here.