A folk festival is always full of stories – from personal to universal – as Martin Simpson reminded us on a sunny Saturday afternoon. Simpson prefaced Leonard Cohen's The Stranger Song with sixth-form memories of someone "weeping on the stairs", and placed Jackie and Murphy (from his new album Vagrant Stanzas) in its historical, Gallipoli-era context. His anecdotes have their own music – the lilt of his accent, the abstract soundscape of retuning between numbers.
Bella Hardy echoed this storytelling approach, giving a female focus to traditional songs such as The Seventh Girl and The Herring Girls, populated by gutsy heroines. Meanwhile, the skies darkened in preparation for a rainy evening with Frigg, the irrepressible fiddle-dominated Finns, among others.
Mokoomba's narrative takes us all over Africa. Despite their youth, this sextet, from the Victoria Falls region of Zimbabwe, has played together for more than a decade – and it shows. Leader Matthias Muzaza has an easy command of the big stage and Mokoomba slip happily from whooping a cappella to brass-punctuated Afrobeat and Afro-reggae.
The Heritage Blues Orchestra took us on a road trip full of mysterious detours. Fronted by Junior Mack, Bill Sims Jr and daughter Chaney Sims, they put blues and roots into a dignified, almost scholarly framework, with arrangements by Bruno Wilhelm. Hard Times includes a spine-chilling brass chorale that references Joe Zawinul; other numbers are gorgeously Ellingtonian. Yet the nine-piece HBO retains a commitment to footstomping, hollering blues that gives Vincent Bucher a chance to raise the roof with heartfelt blues harp. And Chaney Sims is a star, singing emotional versions of St James Infirmary (with piano accompaniment) and C-Line Woman.
Phillip Henry and Hannah Martin incorporate idiosyncratic elements, such as Henry's slide guitar (with its hints of Indian classical music), while remaining firmly within the folk tradition. They delighted the Club Tent audience, but the duo has a combination of virtuosity, intensity and charisma that merits a slot on much bigger stages.
