Less than a week after performing at Les Ray and Deirdre Murphy’s Red Velvet music marathon, we were back in Cambridge. Albeit at the same venue, this time we were visiting the Cambridge Folk Club to support the mighty Phil Beer.
We had last been on the same as stage as Phil when na-mara appeared just ahead of Show of Hands at the Friday main marquee event at the Bromyard Folk Festival in 2013 and it was a delight to hear that Phil remembered us from that event.
Despite setting off early for Cambridge, it seemed as though the entire southern English road system had seized up to confound us. Thankfully, deploying clever technology and pedal to the metal when we could, we arrived in decent time for a sound check albeit frustrated by our two-hour journey. This was, however, put in perspective when we heard of Phil’s seven (or was it nine?) hour journey from the West Country.
Not surprisingly, a musician of Phil’s reputation draws a big audience and, not long after completing our soundcheck, the room began to fill – and it filled until it was full.
We kicked the evening off with a half hour set which was upbeat, different to our previous visit to the venue and contained some of our new material. Writing for local Cambridge Time Out-type magazine Local Secrets, Rychard Carrington captured our contribution to the evening as follows:
“Opening the show were na-mara, a guitar and mandolin duo from St. Albans, who like to perform traditional numbers from France and Spain alongside British songs. Yet it was their two own compositions that were particularly stirring, on account of their themes: The Garden of England, about contemporary slavery in Kent, and Navajos & Pirates, about German resistance to Hitler. When folk takes on humane political concern the power of music is particularly affecting.”
We have thanked Rychard separately for his kind words and are very pleased that he appreciated the nature and focus of our music.
Phil then came on and provided the audience with a virtuoso performance, covering a wide array of musical styles played on a multitude of instruments. We had everything from John Dowland on ukulele to Randy Newman transposed for guitar, via traditional tunes on fiddle, a small sprinkle of Show of Hands songs and a lot else besides. This was all delivered with amusing anecdotes and clever banter throughout. Off stage, in quieter moments, he and I were even able to share stories about mopeds of yore – that’s a sentence no-one expects to write.
Once again, many thanks to our friends at Cambridge Folk Club whose support and kindness to na-mara is as long-lasting as it is firm; and it is most sincerely appreciated by us both. We wish Phil Beer and the Cambridge Folk Club well for the year ahead and very much hope to be back in their company in the not too distant future.