Our first appearance at 2023 Tenterden Folk Festival was mid-afternoon on the first day of the event. We were both very excited as we were booked to open the afternoon concert.
We were camping at the festival campsite which, although no more than a 15 minute walk from the venue, was just a little too far for us to carry three guitars, a banjo, cajon, clarinet, xylophone and merch box. The venue, Tenterden Club, is just down a side road off of the extremely attractive Tenterden High Street, and we were able to park the car right outside and unload. The bar was downstairs from the hall and being a social club, drinks were very reasonable. Load in was something of of a journey – down a narrow corridor, up a couple of flights of stairs, into a lounge area then through some screens and across the decent sized hall to the performance area. We had to make that trip several times, getting slightly hotter and stickier with each trip!
We were greeted by Pete, one of the other performers, who was gently practising banjo in front of the stage as we loaded in. Clearly Pete is a seasoned folk performer we thought, and it was only a little later that we found out he was one of the main acts of the festival and very well-known on the folk circuit. That demonstrated to us how new to this we still are and I think we both felt a little embarrassed afterwards. He wasn’t particularly chatty but he was polite and moved aside so we could set up. Although there was a full PA set up on the stage, we were to perform acoustically. This was to the relief of Pete who told us there were some issues with the sound engineer on the previous evening.
The concert’s bill included: Milton Hide (singer-songwriters), Brown Boots (traditional english music on fiddle and accordion), Dry Wood (trad english and american songs) and Pete Coe (folk singer and banjo player). Jim knew Dry Roots’ Phil Underwood from his days playing the UK cajun circuit with the Cajun Dawgs. Phil is a fine squeezebox player and extremely versatile musician and they spent a good while catching up.
Once loaded in, it was Jim’s task to go and find somewhere to park the car as the space outside was one hour maximum and we were to be there for the whole afternoon. Jim had intended to replace a string on his 12 string guitar and we’d designed our set including the instrument, but time was pressing and the audience was gathering so we adapted the set to leave the 12 string out. It’s amazing how time suddenly vanishes and the show is upon you and neither of us felt particularly ready to start by the time the MC, our friend Bob Kenward, stood up at the front of the hall and introduced us.
When we started we had an audience of around 20 people. More came in during our performance and by the time we finished our 45 minute set the hall was about half full. 45 minutes to 1 hour is about the average set length at most festivals where there are multiple acts on the bill – that means something like 8 – 10 songs, including introductions. We try and plan that accordingly but it’s rare to plan and perform a set and not leave a number out. We love to interact with an audience and feel the songs require explanations – we find people expect and enjoy these tales. Also, people do expect a little humour and interaction.
We really enjoyed performing that afternoon, especially as we were unamplified. We sold a three-cd set to one person and received some lovely comments from other other members of the audience.
Then it was Brown Boots’ turn. Martin and Will are obviously well regarded on the circuit as the audience had swelled somewhat by the time they started. They played a selection of mostly traditional english tunes with one or two of their own compositions thrown in on fiddle and melodeon (a type of accordion for those who don’t know). We thoroughly enjoyed their set and their repartee was great.
Next up were Phil and Denise aka Dry Wood who, using a number of instruments – banjo, accordion, guitar and floor drum – performed a great set. Very entertaining whilst demonstrating a huge range of influences.
Finally Pete Coe took to the stage. Pete is a very experienced performer and he’s full of tales of people he’s met and places he’s performed. He sings with a lovely vibrato and delivers his songs, many of which deal with social injustice, with genuine passion. He finished his set with a bit of a political finger wagging rant – which Jim enjoyed immensely!
One lesson we learned was that we really needed to make sure we had fuelled up on food earlier. Unfortunately due to time running away with us, we didn’t get to eat anything until well after our set when Jim returned from the supermarket with some sandwiches. We think the consequence of this was that Josie’s blood sugar level was reduced and she found herself in quite a bad place mentally later that evening when we were booked to play a guest spot in a pub session – more about that in the next instalment…