My highlight from Saturday’s festival was The Annie Baylis Band, a foursome singing lyrically in an “endangered” language. That means it is spoken by 400 people or less.
They sang in Cornish – as well as English (for people not among the less than 400). Their songs are about the sea and sailors, tin mining and the NHS. Very, very pretty and very, very gentle protest.
Whether the songs are in English or in Cornish, you can hear all the words.
Another highlight of Cambridge Folk Festival – Cornish foursome The Annie Baylis Band pic.twitter.com/SYdemcpYNI
— John Elworthy (@johnelworthy) July 28, 2024
They were the 2023 winners at the International Pan Celtic Song Contest in Carlow, Ireland, for a subtle protest song – in Cornish. Annie said when she was in Carlow she got the feeling of all her life having missed people that she hadn’t yet met.
Annie, 31, sang us another song Who Cares, which she wrote after her mum, Lucie Baylis, a midwife, and nurse for over 30 years, was invited to a ceremony for a long service award.
When Lucie got there, the names were read out but somehow hers was missed. Another song, Postcard is about Cornwall as a place for the people who live there – not just holiday makers.
The melodic verses of yet another has a chorus saying: “Cornish lads are fishermen and Cornish lads are miners too, when the fish and tin are gone, what are they to do?”
This soul-refreshing joy and delight of the third day of Cambridge Folk Festival was to be found in The Den. It’s a colourful tent in the “wilderness” area, a tucked away corner of Cherry Hinton Park.
It’s near another happy tent where the food is wholesome, and you can get a good cup of tea. Don’t tell the others about it. If the spirit of the late Ken Woollard, the fire fighter who started the festival in 1965 (organising it from a phone box outside Cambridge Fire Station) is anywhere. It’s here. He started the festival for folk music, and he insisted that the food be fairly priced.
Sangjaru – the Korean version of the Rolling Stones – at Cambridge Folk Festival 2024 pic.twitter.com/f8SzawTL51
— John Elworthy (@johnelworthy) July 28, 2024
Away from the raucous blast of Sangjaru – the Korean version of The Rolling Stones, imaginative, electrifying and amplified to the skies in Stage Two; and the well-loved rhythmic rockers Turin Brakes galvanising Stage One, here in The Den was folk written by the people who played and sang it.
The Annie Baylis Band are on the shortlist for this year’s Cambridge Folk Festival’s Christian Raphael Prize.
Set up in 2018 by a festival goer since his childhood, the award offers financial help to upcoming bands and has led to three past winners being invited on to BBC Two’s Later…with Jools Holland.
Annie, who has played the fiddle since she was seven and has a beautiful, clear voice, is accompanied by Alan Pengelly on the accordion, John Gray (her father) on bass, and George Arnold on guitar. They were an absolute privilege to hear – an oasis of loveliness.
Cambridge Folk Festival continues on Sunday, July 28.
