It's a long way to the bayou

"I don't know why they call themselves the Bayou Brothers, " said U as she left at the end of the evening. "They haven't played a single bit of Cajun music." She was right, they didn't -- it was gospel, a bit of blues, a bit of reggae. Perhaps they didn't know the difference! We found them a bit boring. Even with the addition of young Sam trying to upstage them by playing air guitar again -- they eventually asked him to get off the stage.

They were preceded by Michel Aubenas, who has a great blues voice but unfortunately not very adventurous taste. Swing Low Sweet Chariot and What a Wonderful World were not great vehicles. More entertainingly, the Soeurs Trombone were there again. They were selling paper flowers and also bobines: you picked a film canister with a song title pasted on it from their tray, and they sang it to you.

The programme of the festival is nothing if not varied: in the afternoon we'd escaped the heat in the chapel itself, listening to Russian cellist Dimitri Maslennikov playing Bach, Kodaly, and Alejandro Schwartz. Unfortunately, being among the last to arrive we were right at the back. It was like listening to the radio -- all I could see was the top half of his head and the occasional glimpse of his right elbow. I very much enjoyed the Kodaly though, a very showy piece.

I did a Flickr set of a few of my photos of the festival, if you are interested. Most of them were of the Trombone Sisters because they were so photogenic. When I told them I'd taken their pictures, they squealed with delight, so I'll be sending some their way.