Rhiannon Giddens, Punch Brothers, and Olivia Chaney all performed at the Cambridge Folk Festival this weekend, and judging by the Guardian review, all went well, to say the least. "Giddens was a revelation" and "Chaney showed how it should be sung," says the Guardian's Robin Denselow of their Saturday sets, and "the finest performance of the night came from one of the most inventive acoustic bands on the planet," says Denselow of Punch Brothers' "magnificent" Sunday set. Giddens and Chaney also performed for BBC Radio 2's coverage from Cambridge, which can be heard at bbc.co.uk.
As noted Friday in the Nonesuch Journal, this past weekend was a busy one in the UK summer festival world, with Rhiannon Giddens and Punch Brothers headlining the Southern Fried Festival in Perth, Scotland, Friday, and both artists were featured on the main stage of the 51st annual Cambridge Folk Festival, as was label mate Olivia Chaney. BBC Radio 2's Mark Radcliffe was at the latter event on Saturday and spoke with Giddens and Chaney and captured performances from both. You can hear Giddens' interview and performance of "Waterboy" and "Shake Sugaree" off her debut solo album, Tomorrow Is My Turn, and Chaney's interview and performance of "Too Social" and "The King's Horses," off her debut album, The Longest River, at bbc.co.uk. Giddens' segment begins at 15 minutes in, Chaney's at two hours and 12 minutes.
"Rhiannon Giddens was a revelation," the Guardian's Robin Denselow exclaims in his review of the festival. "Five years ago, she was here as a member of the African American old-time string band Carolina Chocolate Drops, but now she returned as a soloist, showing a range and vocal power that she had only hinted at before ... As Joan Baez commented on her later, 'Jesus! Just beautiful!'"
"Olivia Chaney showed how it should be sung," Denselow later reports, "at the start of an adventurous set in which she switched from Purcell to Violeta Parra and her own highly personal and acrobatic compositions, while playing harmonium, guitar and keyboards."
Punch Brothers, who stopped in London after their Friday night set in Perth for a show at Royal Festival Hall Saturday, took the Cambridge main stage on Sunday. And so it was that "the finest performance of the night came from one of the most inventive acoustic bands on the planet," says Denselow. "Their roots may be in bluegrass, but they used their country influences as a starting point for songs that were intricate and constantly surprising." The group, he concludes, was "magnificent."
Read the Guardian's coverage from the Cambridge Folk Festival at theguardian.com.
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