The 2022 Cambridge Folk Festival is fast becoming a distant, but wonderful, memory. The time since then has turned out to be a lot busier than I hoped, but - although more than a month has gone by - I don't think it's too late to share a few thoughts with you.
I particularly want to highlight some of the artists I discovered during those few days in Cherry Hinton Hall Park. The first is Judy Blank, an artist from the Netherlands who I happened to catch in The Den on the festival Sunday. I had planned to see a bit of her set and then move somewhere else, but that never happened - I found myself pretty much anchored to my grassy spot as soon as Judy began playing. She played her set with truth, honesty, and perfect judgement.
Judy performed a number of songs from her April EP, which is endearingly titled 'Saddies' (I've linked it below). I'm a sucker for 'sad' songs; they just resonate with the real-world human experience for me, and I generally find them oddly uplifting and comfortable. Judy's sad songs are the type that bring a smile, too, as she clearly doesn't take herself too seriously, despite the seriousness of some of her subjects.
A standout of these songs was 'I'm a Mess' - a captivatingly honest, no-holds-barred exposition of vulnerability, set off by the kind of chord changes which invariably give me goose bumps.
'Karaoke' (track 2 from the EP) is an apparently simple song, in the best folk tradition. The lyrics have a beautiful clarity, and so does the music, which seems to flood you the listener with a beautiful natural light. It's the sonic equivalent of walking in a sunlit forest.
During her festival set, Judy's rendition of a Dutch folk tale - in Dutch - was another memorable point (and at this point I'm kicking myself not to have made a note of the name, my excuse being that I was in "off duty" holiday mode ...) It was one of those classic tale with a very dark twist, and her performance absolutely entranced me, and the rest of the audience from what I could see. (Judy, if you read this, please remind me about that tale!)
Listen to Judy here: