Serendipty and surprise at Folk Weekend Oxford

With big musical events it’s the little, unexpected things that often stay with you. And last weekend’s Folk Weekend Oxford was no exception.

The line-up was spectacular, with some well-known headliners topping a diverse list of bands, duos and soloists. But the true joy of this multi-venue festival lay in its serendipitous line-up — which is why we spent a chunk of Saturday afternoon laughing, singing and, yes, crying, in the diminutive hall at St Columba’s United Reformed Church, just off the High Street.

The artist was Lester Simpson – best known as one-third of a capella trio Coope, Boyes and Simpson. The audience was similarly small, but we were rapt as this North Derbyshire musician and raconteur sang moving, bittersweet stories of First World War Tommies, nurses and widows, tapped our feet to sea shanties, laughed along to upbeat tales of misfits and wanderers, and sat hypnotised by tales of heart-wrenching emotional depth, as the sonorous-singer accompanied himself gently on melodeon and ukulele.

As he finished, with a cover of Chumbawamba’s Add Me (“Add me, add me, My mother says she wished she’d never had me...”) we knew we’d heard something special.

There was a similar sense of having discovered something unique later, when a handful of people enjoyed a set of crystalline beauty by Henley singer-songwriter Megan Henwood. Oxford gig-goers know Megan from gigs passim around the city, but it was startling to see just how far she has come — from interesting young hopeful to one of the county’s greatest vocal talents. The hushed (perhaps too hushed) sanctuary of St Michael at the Northgate resounded to Megan’s voice and gently strummed acoustic guitar, backed by double bass and an electrifying performance on cello by the hugely- talented Matthew Forbes. The ecclesiastical setting lent the set a suitably spiritual quality — an oasis of beauty away from the boozy raucousness of Cornmarket outside.

Sublime: Megan Henwood

Not that there’s anything wrong with boozy raucousness, of course; it just has to be in the right place. And the right place on Saturday was the Old Fire Station, where salty party-starters Blackbeard’s Tea Party whipped up a frenzy in the wake of the deliciously dark Telling the Bees. York’s Blackbeard collective are dynamic and bonkers, but capture the other side of the folk coin from Megan’s: unrestrained, beer-soaked merrymaking. Slow at first, the audience loosened up, one by one, with spontaneous outbreaks of reeling. And by the end of the show we were dizzy, drenched with sweat, but grinning ear to ear.

Causing a buzz: Telling the Bees

Sunday was welcomed with hangovers and strong coffee, but energy was restored by another eclectic programme, headlined by Belinda O’Hooley and Heidi Tidow, who won over a packed Randolph ballroom. The duo came armed with witty songs, tapping into folk’s tradition of telling the stories of ordinary working men and women. Their songs mine from history and the present, their native West Yorkshire featuring heavily. Those tales are delivered in beautiful close harmony.

Equally engaging were the afternoon’s other stars: BBC Radio 2 Young Folk Award-winners Greg Russell and Ciaran Algar, whose fiddle and guitar set off songs of similarly diverse provenance, a favourite being the tale of a Missouri firefighter on his deathbed. It was classic folk territory which showed not only the diverse quality of contemporary folk, but the depth of imagination of festival director Cat Kelly and her team to create one of the country’s best weekends of music. Roll on 2015!

For more info on Folk Weekend Oxford, click here...