Friday 9.2.2018

Morning sun with some warmth in it but a keen little breeze keeping us at a brisk step; cacophony of caws, squawks, coos and chitter-chattering in the woods as the birds made the most of the day with a buzzard wheeling overhead adding to the noise with its distinctive cry and even a lark a-rising as we headed up the road (a different lark to Vaughan William`s, less serenity, more agitation - which might have had something to do with the temperature).

Forgot to mention the musicians we saw right at the start of CC. Kris Drever, John McCusker & Roddy Woomble reprising a ten year old recording they made together at the splendid Old Fruitmarket.
The variety of great venues is one of the attractions of the Festival and so it was the following night when we ended up at Drygate - https://www.drygate.com - imagine good beer, food and a lovely small venue.
There we saw Jupiter & Okwess - high energy Congolese band mixing "myriad...styles and rhythms with funk, soul and rock" and they certainly rocked.
But their support was the big surprise: weird and wacky, fantastic musicians or, as the programme had it "magpie-minded British stringpickers" taking influences from across the globe, Les Triaboliques were riveting, not least because one of their number could have been cast as Raskolnikov.

And all with their political antennae sharpened and their sense of humour to the fore. These kind of discoveries are what going to festivals is all about.