Held over the Spring Bank Holiday weekend, usually the 28th to 31st May -- if you have never been to Chester Folk Festival, you will never know what you have missed. On the folk festival calendar, in terms of size, Chester Festival is one of the smaller festivals, but it more than makes up for it in quality and comfort, and so it grows in stature every year. This is largely due to a wide and varied pool of really excellent singers and musicians to be found locally and who the festival organisers can call on for support. So that is what you will find on this album. These sometimes-unsung heroes often give a professional performance that is comparable to the headline stars.
The album is made up of 19 tracks recorded in various studios, but re-mastered in CDs Studio by Richard Chaff. The venue for Chester Folk Festival is 8 miles outside of the city in the rural village of Kelsall. The epicentre of the festival is based around the Olive Tree pub / restaurant (in the bar you will find a neverending session) with the main concert marquee alongside surrounded by the caravan / camping site. The 2 other main venues -- the Community Centre and Social Club -- are only about 90 yards away, and all is in easy walking distance.
So who is on this album? What's it like? In short you are in for a treat, and at only £7.00 with a generous 19 tracks, it has to be the bargain of the year! Most of the artists have donated 2 tracks. The album starts with 'Spiral Dance' from The Restless Bentleys, who also come up again at track 6 with 'Toss in the Morning'. Adding some sweet harmonies, as only mother and siblings can do, The Waite Collective sing a capella version of 'Sovay' and also 'Smile in Your Sleep' but this time with guitar accompaniment.
At track 3 you find the band Full House with the first of 2 blisteringly good tracks. The first is 'Waltzes': two waltz tunes written by Chris Lee. Their second offering is at track 18 and is written and sung by Nick Mitchell: 'The Ghost of Mary Rose', undeniably the best song on the album. Full House are: Nick Mitchell, Chris Lee, and Dave Russell. Its no secret they are big fans of Fairport Convention and give a strong performance befitting their years of experience as resident band of Chester's longest running Folk Club. Not surprisingly that Chris Lee, Dave Russell and Russell Marbott provide the instrumental core for the band Family Mahone, who incidentally, are also playing at Cropredy (Fairport Convention's own festival) this year. Such is the quality of musicians you hear on this album. Family Mahone have B.B.C. Radio One presenter Mark Radcliffe as singer and front man. They sway in at track 9 with a live recording of the song 'Coast to Coast'.
The music on this album is indeed wide and varied -- as it should be at any festival. Roy Clinging offers an alternative approach as a more ethnic traditional solo performer with his songs 'Billy Boy' and 'John Barleycorn', both taken from his latest album 'An Honest Working Man'. The affable Graham Bellinger comes up three times on the album. First as a solo performer with his song 'Built to Last' from his album of the same name and secondly as part of a duo with Steve Goodchild with the song 'Do You Like the Battle' and lastly in the track from the band Root Chords -- a blues song 'Treated Wrong' on which he shares the lead vocal with Mick Green -- all good stuff.
A lovely track is donated by the band Solan, the concertina of Frances Wilkins leads an instrumental called 'The Haven and the Hurricane' taken from their album of the same name. It brings you the Celtic flavour of the Shetlands. Chester is blessed with several excellent bands and one of these that play a lot of French & English tunes is The Tyme Bandits. They appear twice on the album with 'La Bouree' and 'Bransles'. I like the pipes on the latter -- a superb ending for the album.
One of the Chester Morris Men, when he is not leaping about, is also a bloody good singer. John Finnan sings and accompanies himself on the guitar with the song 'Bring Me a Rose' -- brilliant. Another solo performer is the inimitable Charlotte Peters-Rock with her own song 'Innuit Call Song' from her album Flying Free. And if you even need some more variation, how about a song in Welsh? 'Huna Blentyn' (trad) from Trefor & Vicki Williams, taken from their album Timeless Land. Last but not least, I have to mention one of the finest voices you will ever hear on the folk scene today belongs to Mal Waite. The song 'I Drew My Ship' is taken from her solo album Turquoise. It really is hard to believe that most of them are semi professional artists.
A lot of these performers are not widely known on the club singer's circuit. This is mainly due to work and family commitments stopping them from touring extensively; but don't let this put you off buying the album, as I am sure you will learn and take influence from it.
