Mr Paxton opened proceedings. At previous festivals he's gone by the name 'Blind Boy Paxton'. The name may have altered, but he remains as entrancing as ever. Musically adept, vocally smart, and with thowaway humour to spare. Guitar, 2 banjos (one of 1848 vintage!), harmonica and piano. Plus those relaxed vocals . Paxton is a comfortable performer with his very own laid back style who can manage an audience and plays gorgeous old fashioned blues. It felt like this performance should have been in monochrome, so strong was the feeling of an old back porch in the 1920s or 30s. Wonderful, and should really have been the headline act.
I've seen Doug MacLeod a couple of times before, the last occcasion six years ago. So it was a bit of a shock to see how those years have aged him, and that smooth voice has lost some of it's ability to charm. But the guitar playing and storytelling faculties are undimmed. He has a long history as a bluesman, one of the traditional kind, even though he sings only self-penned material. That brings with it a welath of tales and personalities he's encountered, many of them transformed into lyrics. MacLeod may not quite be the force he once was, but still a marvellous entertainer.
Mark Harrison is an odd bird, especially for a headline act of a Blues Afternoon. From Coventry, abd backed by upraight bass and drums, Harrison sings, playes guitar, and tells stories, voices opinions. He's certainly not the quality of musician that we'd seen with paxton and MacLeod. Nor is is singing voice that great really. Some of his opinions seem more like moans. The song lyrics often lack imagination and so many of the basic riffs seem similar.
And yet... The deadpan humour works well, and can make him easy to identify with. Both drums and bass offered up excellent solos. The songs were decent enough to get the toes tapping and there were plenty of laughs. So maybe this was a performance that was better than the sum of it's parts. Low key enjoyable.
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