Cambridge Folk Festival Presents: Songs, Steps & Stories - EVENING SESSION

The Acoustic Showcase will take place from 17.30 to 18.55 in the studio. The performers will be:

Barbara Wibbelmann and Gerd Wagner. Barbara and Gerd play a varied repertoire of originals and carefully selected covers, ranging from the introspective and melancholic to the uplifting.

Playdos (Kati Schubert and Fernando Blasi). Voice and guitar unite in a hushed, atmospheric journey through reimagined covers by the world’s most revered artists.

Lizzie Taylor and Hugh Boyd. With voices, guitars and ukulele, Lizzie and Hugh draw from a wide range of genres: old jazz standards, country, bluegrass and folk from both sides of the Atlantic.

Dear Wife. The solo project of folk singer and songwriter Louise Essex from Hertfordshire. Her sound blends delicate vocals with dynamic acoustic guitar in songs that speak of womanhood, loss, queerness, nature and downfalls.

Jo Ash accompanied by Mike Wheatley. Jo is a critically-acclaimed working musician whose unique vocals, strong melodies and dramatic songs make her music instantly recognisable, and her live performances are described as 'compelling' and ‘spellbinding’.

Brian McNeill is in the 57th year of a career that has established him as one of the most acclaimed forces in Scottish music. His work and influence as a songwriter, composer, performer, producer, teacher, musical director, band leader, novelist and interpreter of Scotland’s past, present and future, have been recognised around the globe. Falkirk-born Brian has performed both as a soloist and with some of the most influential bands of the past half century, including Battlefield Band, which he founded in 1969, Clan Alba and as a core member of the UK fiddle phenomenon, Feast of Fiddles. He has performed and taught at many of the world’s major festivals and is the longest running booked artist at Cambridge Folk Festival. 

Brian is a multi-instrumentalist – playing chiefly fiddle, bouzouki, mandocello, guitars and concertina – and the importance of his songwriting has long been recognised, with many of his songs performed and recorded by artists worldwide. He has been described as ‘Scotland’s most meaningful contemporary songwriter’ (The Scotsman). Brian’s audio visual shows, The Back O' The North Wind, about Scottish emigration to America, and the sequel, The Baltic Tae Byzantium, exploring the influence of the Scots in Europe, have won wide critical acclaim. For six years Brian was Head of Scottish Music at the RSAMD, now the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland. 

Recent years have given Brian more time to concentrate on his writing. He is currently working on his latest novels featuring his hero, busker Alex Fraser and his heroine, sleuth Sammy Knox. He is also recording an album and a series of short stories.

Progressive folk-rock with roots established in anglo-european and celtic traditions. Tin Giants take a refreshing “in with the old, in with the new” approach to interpreting, writing, arranging and performing traditional, contemporary and original music inspired by European acoustic and folk traditions. The band shares decades of skilled musicianship and award-winning song-writing, playing a dazzling array of instruments.