k.d lang, The Imagined Village, Eric Bibb

Genuine conversation heard today: "Top of the mornin' to ye, Jimmy! How are ye?"

As the traditional Sunday morning edition of the Archers was broadcast from Stage 1 for die-hard fans, I was in the Club Tent for a little guitar workshop with bluesman Eric Bibb. This is something Cambridge does really well: an intimate audience of fellow amateur musicians posing questions and listening to some unbeatable fingerstyle guitar.

Last night was another good one. Martha Wainwright was playing the main stage, but I was in the club tent, listening to a mother and daughter duo on fiddle and a bizarre humming string instrument which I couldn't name but which was certainly distinctive. Next I caught the Quebec folk band Mauvais Sort once again, and was blown away by their energy and camaraderie on stage, and their interaction with the audience.

Their promise of providing a place to stay if we were ever in Quebec (just drop 'em an email) convinced me to pick up their latest album, which I got signed to boot.



k.d lang, appearing on Stage 1, is arguably one of the biggest acts this year.

I admit to knowing hardly anything about her before, except for that one song everyone's heard (you'd know it when you hear it), but her pure talent and Patsy Cline-esque (I wasn't surprised to discover that Cline is one of her influences) country singing really impressed me, an opinion which was sealed by a rendition of that old Cohen classic, Hallelujah.

 And then for something completely different... The Imagined Village, a folk supergroup comprising Billy Bragg, Martin and Eliza Carthy, a host of talented musicians you've probably never heard of - and a certain Brummie-Caribbean poet you probably have - came on stage for a truly novel multimedia experience the likes of which Cambridge has never really seen before. Mixing English fiddles and cellos with Asian dhol drumming and sitar is risky, but it really pays off with a unique fusion of sound that aims, unashamedly, to reflect a multicultural 21st century England. And it's absolutely beautiful. There's often talk of how the BNP and other far-right groups have hijacked English national identity, but here's Billy Bragg and Martin Carthy and Johnny Kalsi and Sheema Mukherjee and Benjamin Zephaniah really taking it back, making me feel actually patriotic about England, a feeling which is, criminally, all too rare these days. This is a model for 21st century England.
 




Indeed, as Bragg sings, English identity has always been a
mash-up of cultures: St George was Lebanese, and since when were the Three Lions native to these isles?