Woodford in review: Day Two

29 December 2009 by Max Easton

Words and photos trio Leigh Plover, Richard Wilson and Max Easton are on site at the Woodford Folk Festival for all of this week, with daily updates to come. Straight from the heart of the festival site comes Soulshine’s account of Day Two.

 Facing off against Monday was like any other day at Woodford. Barely seconds from reading the timetable, we were already bewildered at the number of options available for that day’s line-up, with very little clue of how we were supposed to arrange ourselves around that. The weather gods were back into their indecisive mood, and the festival population seemed to have almost doubled following presumably very good day ticket sales. This all made for a particularly festive mood, one of which was supported by an awesome day of music and talks.

Having taken some time to get ourselves into the festival, the day was kicked off by losing everyone and going our separate ways. Catching a bit of Angie Hart and some of James Morrison, we re-convened at Lisa Mitchell. Say what you will about her rise to commercial success and brief appearance on Australian Idol, but in a 45 minute set, Lisa Mitchell proved herself to be an all-rounded talented performer with a pretty solid band playing behind her. Some criticisms of her recorded stuff circled around a knack of imitating established singer-songwriters, something which didn’t come across live at all. Some songs had been subtly reworked for a live audience and her voice felt more natural, which made for a set that was pretty damn satisfying and well worth catching again at Brisbane’s Sunset Sounds festival in early January.

Later in the afternoon came a completely unexpected surprise in the form of The Middle East. Having had as good as no idea as to who or what they were, their set fast became not only the day’s highlight,  but as Richo put it, one of the best discoveries he’s ever made at any festival at any time. A seven piece littered with a Banjo, Mandolin, Accordian, keys, guitars and three distinctly unique voices, The Middle East played a varied set crossing all manner of styles and genres. They brought out some raw doses of Australiana amongst Bluegrass moments and wall-of-sound ventures into Sigur Ros like territory. You could throw all of that aside though for one song, a track which began as a spoken word single guitar foray with the repeated line ‘thing were gonna get better.’ The story was powerful and supported by the sequential addition of extra guitars, banjo, drums, etc until the point that the spoken word campfire song had turned into a full-band piece with vocals now being yelled rather than spoken. Without dwelling on how great that moment was as a festival moment, it was powerful enough to warrant the taking over of this entire festival update for. From there, a tour around the festival, a few sideshows, a few drinks and an absolute waterlogging at the hands of the clouds, the night was wrapped up.

So now we’re facing off against Day  Three, with acts like Kaki King and Don McGlashan to look forward, things are looking good for another day of festivalia. If you’re inclined to get yourself a ticket and come on down to the festival, you won’t be disappointed…the festival is looking great as always. If not, there’s always our daily updates, coming to you again for the rest of the festival.

Album Reviews

Kimbra - Vows

Ben Salter - The Cat

Seasick Steve - You Can't Teach An Old Dog New Tricks

Timber Timbre - Creep On Creepin On

More Reviews