There is a sense in which a country roots festival is a tautology, since a genre that has barely changed since the days of Hank Williams has little other than its roots. And ever since Nick Drake pop music has plundered country voraciously for sounds and ideas, country music artists have to work hard to sound neither old-fashioned nor like bad pop. As the new country of recent years has proved, not many have managed it.
Furthermore, country uses the same musical language no matter what the subject - whether dealing with love, death or home-grown tomatoes, the same plodding bass, chord progressions and banjostyle guitar are used.
It is against this background that the organisers of a country festival must work. And to give them their due, they managed to muster a fair degree of authenticity for this one. They invested in a few acts with more than a faint acquaintance with Nashville, and were rewarded on the whole with well-attended gigs and a lively atmosphere.
One such artist was Gail Davies, a veteran of the country circuit. Unfortunately, people are only usually referred to as "veteran" if there is nothing else good to say about them. She gave her y'all, but her set, reliant on old John Prine and Bob Dylan covers, fell into two traps at once.
Much more successful was Guy Clarke at the lovely Watergate theatre, a model of craggy authenticity, who had the decency to wear jeans and cowboy boots. It was almost a blessing that his sidekick was held up at the airport, for his guitar plucking was more subtle alone, especially when he did Randall Knife unamplified. Often he was too determined to rhyme every couplet, leading to the odd excruciating line, but also a few clever phrases.
Dale Watson & The Lone Stars were something else altogether. Loud and derivative, and full of guff about "shootin' a man" and "lovin' ma woman" they could be happily consigned to the trash can. The highlight of the festival was the closing set by Dead Reckoning, a consortium of Texas songwriters playing each others' work. It was full-blooded stuff, illuminated by electrifying fiddle playing from Tammy Rogers and the vigorous country shenanigans of the other five musicians.
