Is folk music cool again? Little Grandad, Madra Salach and Westside Cowboy make the case at The Great Escape
Packed into Chalk shoulder-to-shoulder, Great Escape crowds find themselves swept up in an evening that turns folk, trad and Americana into the hottest ticket in Brighton.
Thursday of The Great Escape and people are forcing themselves into non-existent gaps in the Chalk crowd like commuters trying to get on the train home. The band they’re all trying to get a look at? It’s Americana-flecked indie outfit Little Grandad, a band who have only just released their debut single but are already generating more buzz than a particularly angry beehive.
They’re the first of a three-band bill who are all driving a folk-influenced resurgence in different ways. While Little Grandad cover off the alt-country touches, Madra Salach are here to cement their place in the Celtic trad revival. Their songs, often running over 6 minutes on record, are transformed live into gut-wrenching, barnstorming bangers. A cover of ‘Tunnel Tigers’ is dedicated to “every Irish man who died building London” and ‘Man Who Speaks Pleasure’ is a genuine moment of catharsis for the whole crowd, slowly building to a singalong crescendo. The band take to the mic between songs to acknowledge how tough it is to be sandwiched between bands as good as Little Grandad and Westside Cowboy. The crowd response should be more than enough evidence that they rose to the challenge.
Bringing us home is Westside Cowboy themselves. The self-described Brittanicana band have come a hell of a long way since last year’s festival, when they played about fifty shows and quickly became the most hyped act of the weekend. Tonight, they’ve fulfilled that prophecy and then some. The venue is still crammed full, the band are on top form, and people are singing along to every word. ‘Shells’ is a particularly tender moment and ‘Don’t Throw Rocks’ is received like an old classic, while closing song ‘In The Morning’ brings the folk influences to the fore as it’s transformed into an almost skiffle-esque number, the band crowding around one mic and singing together to end the set.
Westside Cowboy have very quickly built up an impressive roster of hits, but with new songs getting an airing and some not-so-subtle hints about a debut album, this is a band who aren’t done making bangers just yet.
The Great Escape can often feel like a series of individual shows with little coherent throughline and a lot of days involve trudging from venue to venue creating your own lineup. Little Grandad, Madra Salach and Westside Cowboy turn that on its head, with most of the crowd staying put through all three acts. Each band picks a different aspect from country, trad or folk and runs with it, stripping the genres back to their spit-and-sawdust roots. We never thought we’d be the ones to say it, but… is folk music cool now?
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