Oxford Ukeleles perfoming at Wood Festival 2013

Wood, oh Wood, why have I never been before? Life is to short for regrets as I often say, but sometimes you feel you may have been missing out, and this festival is a prime example. What made Wood Festival so appealing you may ask, well it’s almost hard to put your finger on, but I would say it’s the fact that it’s a festival that thinks its more a party for a huge bunch of mates, there’s no pretentiousness to proceedings, ask a lot of the people attending and they won’t have heard a lot of the bands on the bill, but they are there enjoying them all the same, happy to explore the unknown. The rather cool side of the festival is the family oriented nature of it. A friend at the festival summed it up when she said “most of the time I have to leave festivals well before the fun really starts because the kids are tired and bored, I’ve spent all day keeping an eye on them and haven’t got to enjoy any of the music I want to see. At Wood it’s me who has to drag the kids away at the end of the night, there’s so much for them to do.”

This is the key, it’s a festival that caters for the family, a family where parents have grown up loving live music, going to festivals and socialising with friends made on muddy fields all over the country. Now with the responsibilities of looking after young charges most festivals just aren’t aimed at or suitable for families with young kids.

I spent the full three day weekend at this lovely festival, nestled on the side of a small hill at the beautiful Braziers Park. The site was well organised, plenty of space, an awesome Ale tent (no crappy sponsored larger tent here) great food options including vegetarian, at very sensible prices. Workshops galore and a large kids tent with a plethora of activities, all included in the price. There was a healing field which I took advantage of, my backs not felt this good for a while. There were a sprinkling of stalls and two stages, the main Wood Shed stage and the Tree stage. The festival is run on renewable energy and featured a large solar panel array by the main stage.

The music kicked off on Friday at 6pm, and although the site had only been open for 3 hours there was already a reasonable crowd for the opening act Julie Hawk, who gave a quite ethereal soundtrack to setting up my camper. On the first evening I flitted between the two stages catching performances by The August List who, despite their pump organ jamming up in the damp spring evening air, put on a very engaging performance and even threw in a joke or two. Danny and the Champions of the World rocked the main stage and managed to cram a rather large amount of musicians on the small stage, it’s the first time I’ve caught them live and I have to say frontman Danny Wilson has got one hell of a voice and they have some superb songs in their locker, my one gripe was over use of the long solo break within some songs, but that’s a personal thing, everyone else seemed to love it. In between I managed to catch parts of sets by Jess Hall with some heartbreaking songs and the thoroughly entertaining Oxford Ukuleles who managed to take any genre of song and turn it into a compelling and entertaining string and vocal triumph. They certainly got everyone in the tent singing along. Finally on the main stage the headline act that I had been looking forward too, Mary Epworth, I have to say at this point the band had a few technical issues to start off with, and the constant changing of instruments by the band members for each song gave the performance a very disjointed and almost rehearsal room feel. It might be a bit harsh but I’d also suggest that they get a dedicated drummer, that apart the band managed to pull it out of the bag during the later half of the set which showed off Mary Epworth’s talent for writing and delivering songs of real strength, passion and beauty.

Saturday’s Music got underway at 1pm, with the weather warming up and the sun making ever more lengthy appearances through the high cloud. I admit at this point my ale drinking started a little earlier than is normal these days, but this just served to make the day flow even better. Again, I wandered between Main Stage, Beer Tent, Tree Stage and back again. There was a lot to see, and as with all festivals you have to make a choice between who to see and who to miss, so to all those that I missed I apologise, but for me the performances I clocked and enjoyed were Adam Barnes, not only did he have one of the finest beards of the weekend he sung some beautifully mournful songs, which he seemed to apologise for at the end, there really was no need, the performance lifted the atmosphere which to that point had been a little subdued. The mournful was then flipped on its head as Jack Cade and the Everyday Sinners took to the stage to deliver a rousing country, alt country come rockabilly set, a veritable mix of tunes with a deep Tom Waits style vocal complimented by some lovely backing vocals, which was very uplifting in the sunshine. Flights of Helios then took the music of on another tangent under the now bright blue sky. Later in the day I caught Paper Aeroplanes who were, I must say pretty damn awesome, particularly when delivering some great new material from there recently released album ‘Little Letters’. Into the final stretch of the evening I caught three sets of real note each completely different, first up we’re aptly named Wood Brothers, this trio of guitar bass and drums with vocals all round really show why bands from the States really have the edge when it comes to performing live, I know they gig one hell of a lot and it shows, they got the field up on it’s feet for some awesome roots country. During the change over I shot over to the Tree Stage to catch some of Edd Keene and his pulsating loop pedal grooves, if there is and instrument Edd doesn’t know how to play I’m not sure what it is, maybe it’s the Hurdy Gurdy that La Mort Subite frontman Zarand wields with such dexterity. I’m not sure I’d usually be the first in line to see a band with this instrumentation, but they’ve certainly changed my mind on that score with a rip-roaring set that took the already lively crowd to another level with their Eastern European folk and Gypsy Jazz set. It’s not an easy feat to follow on from the Wood Brothers, however, they pulled it off. Wow what a day.

On Sunday, feeling a little jaded, ok pretty hung over to be truthful, from the previous days endeavours at the bar, and the late night revelry around the big fire, suitably or unfortunately situated by the bar, I set myself up at the tree tent stage for the day (apologies to the bands on the main stage). The reason for this is that today the tent has been taken over by one of my favourite labels, Clubhouse Records, as far as I can see this should be a pretty flawless day. It kicks off with Mad Staring Eyes who I’m unfamiliar with, they deliver a strong and wholesome set with a good balance of harmonies between the male and female leads and some clever lyrical numbers. They are followed by Paul McClure, who delivers some poetically subtle folk tunes in between some brilliantly comical observations. The Arlenes delivered the perfect match of male and female vocals, there voices really do work well together. Case Hardin I’m very familiar with and they are in fine form today with a set of laid back heartfelt songs, they’ve added a new member since I last caught them, and it really does enhance there set with the addition of violin and keys, which both serve to complement Pete Gow’s rough hewn gems. The Redlands Palomino are a blast following on, with their edgy guitars and sweet, sweet lilting tunes, what great vocals and so the beers begin to flow slightly to freely again, which just makes the music mellow me out even more and broaden the smile ever so slightly.

By the time we hit the evening we are into the Nebraska sessions, which features each of the artists from the day performing a rendition from Springsteen’s seminal album. This is a thoroughly entertain set as each artist or band takes to the stage delivering the songs in a variety of styles, the stand outs for me are Redlands Palomino, Case Hardin and Dreaming Spires.

The night is rounded of by a thoroughly great performance with some driving, uplifting tunes from The Dreaming Spires, what a grande way to finish off an inspiring and uplifting weekend. The band are also behind the organisation of the event, I have to say, hats off to them for creating such an excellent event, but also for having the hubris to give the prime slots of the weekend to other acts.

Wood you were awesome, thanks for a great weekend of lovely people, music, entertainment and revitalisation.