Ö÷²¥´óÐã

Hello from Cambridge - the hailstones have stopped falling, the sun is out and the mud and gloop are starting to dry up so that the place looks less like the Somme and more like a big field in Cambridge.

I've just watched Genticorum and The Shee going down much better than yesterday's storm. They were both terrific: Genticorum rocking along with a solid set of French-Canadian music and making an amazingly full sound considering there is only three of them. I was dead chuffed to see them using the Jews Harp on a couple of pieces - a much underrated instrument that can really rock when played well.

The Shee, an all girl band mostly from Scotland (and Stockport) were brilliant; their version of Tom Paine's Bones is one of my favourite songs of the last 12 months and it was great to hear them singing it live.

They also have a fine step dancer who hoofed it royal on the main stage with a fine display of what Max Wall used to call Terpsichorean expertise.

As I sit here tapping this, the Watersons are having their picture taken for the cover of fRoots and Edward II are going down several storms on the main stage. I managed to get a snap of Mick Waterson as the family prepared to go onstage.

Ìý

I'm going to be interviewing Buffy Sainte-Marie later - one of my all time heroines from the 60s, a great singer-songwriter and activist for the rights of the Native American peoples.

All that and it's only mid-afternoon. What larks Pip!!!

If you're not at the Cambridge Folk Festival, but you want a little bit of it on your Facebook or MySpace page - why don't you embed our little widgetty thing?: