It all began in the summer breeze of Thursday night with the atmospheric musical magic of Northumbrian piper/fiddler Kathryn Tickell & The Darkening and one of Britain’s best folk duos Kathryn Roberts & Sean Lakeman. They were well supported by singer-songwriter Bella Gafney. Elsewhere there was a joyful Fourth of July celebration of the Great American Songbook on the Folk Stage (led by Lincoln’s excellent Winter Wilson and highly-entertaining Leeds-based jive/swing/blues band Louis Louis Louis) featuring fine USA covers from various guest artists including Becky Syson’s memorable stomp-along ‘These Boots Are Made For Walking’. Meanwhile the Frontier Stage showcased established and up-and-coming artists including The Levy Circus, Littlewolf and Porterhouse. (Special mention for The Terrible Parents, who create strong modern folk songs about the challenges of everyday life, beautifully combining Gordon’s guitar and vocals with Sarah’s cello.)
Kathryn Tickell & The Darkening
Many of the campers, glampers and motorhomers arrived on Friday to the loud “prog folk” sounds of Liverpool’s The Thomas Bradley Project, a mega-talented young band with great vocals and the ability to switch from sweet acoustic to maximum rock & roll. They performed several times across the GTSF weekend, adding to the musical eclecticism of the festival. On the main Lake Stage, Friday evening kicked off with the English folk supergroup Melrose Quartet, followed by multi-talented Irish band The Haar (featuring the extraordinary vocals of Molly Donnery) and then Scottish headliners Blue Rose Code. BRC’s mainman Ross Wilson earlier performed an acoustic set on the Folk Stage, with moving songs such as ‘Julie’ (dedicated to the woman who became his ex-wife), ‘Red Kites’ and ‘Amazing Grace’. Later in the evening, with his six-piece Big Caley Soul Band, BRC celebrated the change of government with his anti-child-poverty song ‘Thirteen Years’ (“are they heating or they eating now?”) and a relevant version of Eric Bibb’s classic ‘Don’t Let Nobody Drag Your Spirit Down’. Importantly for the festival organisers and their audience, when the heavens opened during Blue Rose Code’s set, the new Lake Stage rain cover proved to be a very worthwhile investment. (In previous years the Lake stage was uncovered.)
Blue Rose Code
Other memorable performances at GTSF on Friday included the fine sibling harmonies and melancholic songs of Australia’s beautiful Charm of Finches duo, including relationship advice on ‘Clean Cut’ and their other-worldly Grimms’ fairytale track ‘Marlinchen In The Snow’. Plus other fine voices were heard loud and clear such as the unaccompanied North-East traditional songs of Kit Knight, while later at night the Frontier Stage audience danced along to the truly unique sounds of An Dannsa Dub, an addictive reggae-meets-Gaelic-meets-Afrobeat sound system.
An Dannsa Dub
On Saturday, throughout the day, you could feel the anticipation growing as the festival prepared to welcome the only UK appearance by the Grammy Award-winning Americana star Rhiannon Giddens. Arguably the most important artist booking the festival has made in its history, Rhiannon was recently a guest on Beyonce’s ‘Cowboy Carter’ album and the 460 million-Spotify-streaming ‘Texas Hold ‘Em’ single. Having just flown in from Roskilde Festival in Denmark with her touring band, Rhiannon delivered a powerful set of self-penned anti-slavery songs such as ‘Come Love Come’ and ‘We Can Fly’, and the moving campaigning prison rights song ‘Another Waste Of Life’, plus a truly amazing Hammond-organ powered cover version of Sister Rosetta Tharpe’s ‘That Lonesome Road’. It was a breathtaking moment for the Kirklington audience and a real privilege to witness her emotional performance.
Rhiannon Giddens
Earlier on Saturday there’d been excellent sets from the American duo Campbell/Jensen - featuring Glen Campbell’s daughter Ashley and, inevitably, a wonderful cover version of ‘Gentle On My Mind’ - plus the top-notch musicianship and harmonies of Vancouver-based folk roots collective The Fugitives. There was a fine singing-in-the-rain performance from Canadian duo Over The Moon, and rising New York singer-songwriter Lizzie No is clearly destined to be a future headline act with tracks such as ‘The Heartbreak Store’, ‘Deep Well Song’ and ‘Please Don’t Change Your Mind’. From closer to home but with a definite Western twang to their country blues, Rob Heron & His Tea Pad Orchestra always provide great festival entertainment with songs like ‘Holy Moly (I’m In Love Again)’ and ‘Still Go Honky Tonkin’. They might be self-styled “plastic Geordies” but Rob himself is a lovable blend of Hank Williams and Bob Wills as a frontman. Special mention too for two young English bands, the Georgia Shackleton Trio and Helian, who delivered accomplished traditional folk sets, and also the piratical sea shanty sounds of Oxford’s Jolly Grogsters.
The Fugitives
Sunday was a special day for musical diversity and singer-songwriters at GTSF. In the wake of Rhiannon Giddens’ powerful tracks about slavery, Reg Meuross performed his remarkable song cycle Stolen From God in tandem with concertina/melodeon wizard Cohen Braithwaite-Kilcoyne and Gambian kora master Suntou Susso. Focusing on Britain’s shameful historical involvement in the African slave trade, Meuross delivered very moving works such as ‘Good Morning Mr Colston’ and the haunting ‘I Bought Myself An African’. Reg Meuross also performed a fine set of solo songs on the Lake Stage, as well as another storytelling song cycle about the life of Woody Guthrie, while both Braithwaite-Kilcoyne and Susso invididually lit up the sunny afternoon with their own musical brilliance. Audiences also appreciated the weird but addictive droning sounds of Finland’s Slack Bird (who play Appalachian-style music while looking like Bond villains), the rhythmic Afro-guitar-fuelled sounds of the Cable Street Collective, and the strong work of Nottingham’s very own Paul Carbuncle, who moved effortlessly from traditional labourers’ songs to the modern folk of The Smiths’ ‘How Soon Is Now?’ In contrast, there were also sweet solo sets, strong songs (‘Lay Here In The Dark’) and beautiful duets from two Canadian songstresses - Tara MacLean and Catherine MacLellan.
Stolen from God
Having begun the four days with the distinctive English folk of Kathryn Tickell and Roberts & Lakeman, Gate To Southwell reached a Celtic climax with performances from Ireland’s Daoiri Farrell and Scotland’s Manran. Solo with his bouzouki on the Folk Stage and later with his trio on the Lake Stage, Farrell proved why he’s regarded as a natural heir to Christy Moore and, according to Donal Lunny, “one of the most important traditional singers to emerge in the last decade”; like Christy, he’s got the ability to move from comedy to emotional storytelling with ease. Lastly, headlining the final night of GTSF, came the multi-award winning, globetrotting Scottish supergroup Manran, charging their folk and Celtic rock with fiery tunes on fiddle, pipes, accordion and flute. Naturally, they inspired wild Highland dancing with modern and traditional tracks from albums such as ‘Urar’ and their debut ‘Manran’, and they left a breathless Sunday night audience reflecting on four days of fantastic music, dance and family entertainment while looking forward to Gate To Southwell 2025. (July 3rd to 6th).
Manran
Len Brown, July 2024
And here's our 2024 video and a huge gallery of photos from the weekend.
(for credits see https://www.gtsf.uk/photocredits)
