Jam in Cambridge

One of England's longest running and most successful music festivals, the Cambridge Folk Festival, returns this summer with a stellar line-up for just about anybody interested in back-to-basics, rootsy music with a real emphasis on the song writing and not any hyped up flavour of the month pop mania.

Some of the latest names to be revealed for Europe’s most famous folk festival include Irish singer–songwriter James Vincent McMorrow; renowned Texan storyteller and Grammy Award winner Nanci Griffith; soul, blues, R&B and more from the Keb Mo Band; and English folk singer-songwriter Steve Tilston, recipient of this year’s BBC Folk Award for Best Original Song.

Wow. Yeah. And those are just the most recent to be added to an already impressive roster of performers. Here are but a few more big names hitting the stage this year: Clannad, Joan Armatrading, The Proclaimers, John Prine, Angelique Kidjo, and Billy Bragg (celebrating Woody Guthrie’s 100th Birthday).

Every year the festival selects five up-and-coming artists as “future stars of folk” to play prestigious showcases in the Club Tent. Previous examples include Seth Lakeman, Newton Faulkner, Karine Polwart, Rachel Unthank, Julie Fowlis, Bella Hardy, Jackie Oates and Jim Moray. This year’s selections are Lucy Ward, Horizon winner at the 2012 BBC Folk Awards; gifted young Scottish singer and songwriter Rachel Sermanni, playing an acoustic set; pioneers of ‘chamber folk’ O’Hooley & Tidow, whose debut album made Mojo’s Top Ten Folk Albums of 2010; Pilgrims’ Way, who describe themselves as “refreshingly different, reassuringly traditional;” and close harmony three piece, The Young’uns, from Teeside.

Introduced at last year's festival, the acclaimed new fourth stage, The Den, will host emerging talent over the weekend including the hotly tipped folk punk five-piece Skinny Lister; sensational one-off talent, blues-inspired Liz Green; alt-folk pop singer-songwriter King Charles, playing an acoustic set; and idiosyncratic, UK quintet Moulettes, who blend folk, jazz, rock and classical music.

The Cambridge Folk Festival takes place the 26th through the 29th of July. Full festival tickets cost £120 (roughly $160). Single-day tickets start at £19 (about $30). Visit www.cambridgefolkfestival.co.uk for more about the festival, ticket prices and camping details.

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photo: nicholassmale