After being unsuccessful for the second year running for Glasto tickets our hard-core group started to look for alternatives. Well once the line-up came out for Black Deer it went straight to the top of the list. Billed as an Americana festival two questions sprang to mind, the perennial ‘What is Americana’ and secondly what are the inevitable clashes.
The answer to the first question is I still don’t know. You just need to look at the three headliners of Nathaniel Rateliff, The Pretenders and Richard Hawley to understand that the classification is redundant to describe this festival. Maybe it should just be called Black Deer Festival of really great music for like-minded souls. Might need a bigger poster.
On the second question there were plenty and then even more so once we got there and attended the songwriter sessions every day where we discovered lots of new artists which whetted out appetite to see their full sets.
There is little point comparing Glasto with Black Deer as the scale of the festival is tiny. It’s a compact site in essentially a horseshoe shape where you can get from one tip of the shoe to the other in ten minutes. This does allow easy dashes between the eight or so stages but there is an occasional problem of sound bleed especially from the main stage into the smaller ones.
The added beauty of the compact nature of the site is it’s a very short walk to our fancy camping which is handy to dash back to for warm weather togs or waterproofs for the evening and then the walk back at the end of the day. A word for the fancy camping, great tents, tepee style, toilets, showers, bar and lounge area (where there were impromptu late night shows from musicians staying on site) and a food truck for the essential breakfast every morning.
A word on the weather. It was the perfect festival weather for two and half days, a brief shower during the Pretenders on Saturday night and then the heavens opened up on Sunday for three hours or so. Spirits were by no means dampened though and it was pouring down during one of the many highlights Lukas Nelson.
Before I get to the music the one gripe I have is the complete lack of interest from the both the site and camping security. Maybe once throughout the weekend was my wristband checked to get either into the site or the camping area. A little bit of a worry especially for anything left in the tent.
Back to the festival itself and there is very chilled atmosphere and vibe throughout the weekend. Everyone had a smile of their face, all of the staff were in good spirits and super helpful and a shout out to the bar staff for providing much need ice to the luke warm water from the taps. The only downside was Brewdog was the only beer on sale on site, unless there is a hidden ale stand somewhere. Given the demographic of a lot of middle aged men to have no beer selection is an oversight and that’s not to mention the ethical concerns of Brewdog themselves. So a switch to cider was the order of the day. It’s a minor quibble in the grand scheme of things as what we saw on stage surpassed all expectations.
I will not review every act we saw but they will all get a mention and suffice to say that the quality of the music throughout was exceptional and as mentioned above we were introduced to many new artists of which we have now become fans.
Every day started with a singer writer circle (actually a line on the stage) of artists armed with just an acoustic guitar swapping stories and songs for an hour or so. It was a lovely warm up for the day and its testament to the quality on show that I would have happily seen the full sets of all fifteen or so artists on show over the three days.
The rest of the day was then stage hopping between the three large stages, Main, The Ridge and Haley’s with sojourns into Supajam, Arkansas porch sessions, Café Nero and the live fire area.
The site is set in a mini amphitheatre not unlike the Park stage at Glasto although not as pronounced slope but sight lines are excellent whenever you are and even in the biggest tent you can see the stage perfectly. The other surprise was the quality of the sound. It was crystal clear wherever we went and nowhere more so than the main stage and the Calexico set showcased this to perfection with their upbeat Tex/Mex songs full of trumpets, accordions and acoustic guitar all of which sounded clear and precise.
What is nice is that even the openers on each stage gets a full hour and not just a thirty minute taster session. On a weekend full of highlights I will pick out a few. Probably at the top was an incendiary set closing Saturday Night from the Pretenders. Chrissie Hynde was on top provocative form more than ably supported by James Walbourne and the His Lordship boys providing the rhythm. This was a full on rock show taking in tracks right from the beginning to the newest album. Breath-taking and the minor shower barely registered.
Brennen Leigh was a joy at Haley’s with her story telling country songs ably supported by Melissa Carper on double bass.
Hannah White was superb with Michelle Stoddart on bass adding us to I’m sure her ever growing fan base.
Bonny Light Horseman continue to dazzle with their close harmonies and I was worried how this would come off in a tent after having seen them at the atmospheric Union Chapel earlier in the year but I needn’t have worried. Musicians at the top of their game.
Such was the strength of the line-up on the main stage on Saturday you could have easily just stayed there all day with the likes of an excellent set from Calexico, Teskey Brothers, the aforementioned Pretenders and the fantastic, ageless Bonnie Raitt whose voice is as strong as ever. But a word to the songwriter session on this day the all-female roster of Amythyst Kiah, Angeline Morrison, Kyshona, Simeon Hammond Dallas and Tami Nelson who were sublime.
Sunday like Saturday could have also been a main stage marathon with Amanda Shires, Brandy Clark, Lukas Nelson, Steve Earle and set closer Richard Hawley. But we also had time to catch Joanne Shaw Taylor, Bears Den and starting the day with a gospel brunch and another songwriter session that was top class especially Drake White with his crazy back story who added at least one new fan with his songs and stories.
And that’s a wrap. A superb weekend of excellent music, relaxed vibe, easy to get around and certainly one to consider again in the future if we can’t get tickets for the big one.
Keep on Americana, country, blues, rockin’ y’all