Cambridge Folk Festival 2017: 10 acts to see

Alluri
Born in India but based in the UK, Alluri has taken his cross-cultural background to an artistic advantage. ‘Indian indie music’ is how he sells his sound: a heady melting pot of a traditional Indian folk background, a classical music education, and a British indie refinement. With songs in both English and the Telugu language, the result is something genuinely fresh, at once familiar and foreign. Stage 2, Saturday

Belshazzar’s Feast
Here’s some folk that's as trad as the day is long. Taking their name from an infamous Old Testament story, Belshazzar’s Feast are a two-piece employing the use of an accordion, a cor anglais, oboe, or violin to perform medieval ditties with beardy aplomb. Tongues are rarely far away from cheeks, mind, and though there is some serious musical prowess on display here, the between-song drollery should give some indication of how seriously we should be taking this. Stage 2, Saturday

Bokanté
As patronising names for music genres go, ‘world music’ should be nuked from orbit. That said, you’re unlikely to find a more worldly slice of music than Bokanté, which boasts eight musicians from four continents. Bokanté means “exchange” in Creole, the language spoken in Guadeloupe where vocalist Malika Tirolien was raised, and you can hear a genuine cultural exchange in the music here, which jumbles up fragments of Afrobeat, Caribbean ‘kaladja’, Delta blues, prog rock, and – yes – folk. Stage 2, Friday

Chris T-T
Folk music has always had a political strain. There’s plenty of choice at Cambridge this weekend, including headliner Frank Turner. But in Chris T-T it finds a keen sarcastic wit. Working deliberately outside the mainstream, Chris and his guitar have preached furious missives with jokey jibes for over a decade. But after ten albums, even the enigmatic Mr. T-T appears to be softening, with recent LPs like Love Is Not Rescue offering a more personal substitute to his trademark activism. Come for the fuck-the-Tories righteousness, stay for soul-baring observations. Stage 2, Sunday

Coven
Not to be confused with the 1960s US psych-rock band of the same name, this is in fact the Avengers of contemporary English female folk. Coven brings together the collective talents of vocal harmony duo O’Hooley & Tidow, vocal harmony trio Lady Maisery, and solo vocalist/activist Grace Petrie. They’re a relatively new proposition as a six-piece, but this amount of talent on a single stage is likely be a big draw at Cherry Hinton Hall. Stage 1, Friday

Fantastic Negrito
Xavier Amin Dphrepaulezz has had quite the life. He left school aged 12 and lived “the hustling life” as he put it, dealing crack on the streets of Oakland, California. He was once robbed at gunpoint, and is also survivor of a near-fatal car crash which left him in a three-week coma. Yet his music has proved more colourful than his backstory: blues and roots rock for the masses, with odes to the working class that led Bernie Sanders to count himself as a fan. It may be a little left-field for some of Cambridge’s bearded old guard, but this promises to be a West Coast treat. Stage 1, Saturday

Hayseed Dixie
Admittedly, it’s easy to dismiss Hayseed Dixie’s patented brand of ironic bluegrass cover songs as a little frivolous. But folk has often been a welcome haven for idiosyncratic comedy, and if the novelty of hearing hillbilly versions of Gin and Juice or Highway To Hell is in danger of wearing off, the band also recorded an album entirely in Norwegian, and once made the Finnish top 40 with a single entitled Juodaan Viinaa, which loosely translates to "Let's drink booze". Stage 1, Saturday

Lau
Currently touring their ten year anniversary with a best of album, Lau are a folk trio well known for taking the genre template and giving it a good shake. You will often hear the word ‘experimental’ in the same breath, but it’s more accurate to say ‘innovative’: off-kilter time signatures, glitchy electronic bleeps, garage-y rock riffs melting through. They work best on stage, too, with at least one national newspaper calling them “the best live band in the UK”. Don’t miss them. Stage 2, Saturday

She Drew The Gun
Cambridge’s remit essentially extends as far as ‘anything with a guitar’, and while those hoping for a gentle sea shanty will be well catered for, Merseyside’s She Drew The Gun offer a more modern riposte. There’s post-punk and dream-pop DNA in the veins of this four-piece band, who generated considerable buzz when they won Glastonbury’s Emerging Talent Competition last year. The vocals are soft and heartfelt but the lyrics are spiky and political, emboldened by (electric!) guitar riffs and a poetic curiosity. Stage 2, Friday

Shirley Collins
Shirley Collins was an important figure in the English folk revival scene of the 1960s, working with the likes of Fairport Convention and Nick Drake. But when her husband left her suddenly for another woman, Collins lost her voice. The trauma of her broken marriage caused dysphonia, a condition which affects the throat, and she did not sing again for nearly 40 years, only coaxed back into recording a new album in 2016. It’s the sort of tragic and darkly romantic story that folk lyricists dream of. Making a comeback to the Cambridge stage, a couple of weeks after her 82nd birthday, this is sure to be a powerful and emotional set. Stage 1, Friday

---

Cambridge Folk Festival is on at Cherry Hinton Hall, Cambridge, 27-30 Jul