Three stars Many traditions, from more than one continent, are represented at Tradfest 2015 and we have already experienced music from America's Appalachian tradition.
Pennsylvania-born, Virginia-based Diane Cluck appears to have mined a seam that goes much further back, however, to the Native Americans, because there's something primal about the way she calls up her melodies and chants. Or maybe she's just invented her own tradition.
Either way, it's fine. Although it took a song or six for her very individual form of persuasiveness to take hold, Cluck has a talent for rhythmical rhyming and a clear delivery that sounds as if it's been honed and worked on over a longish time to make a strong but gentle impact. Her songs are often like minimalist, quite mysterious short stories, giving the listener just enough to keep up with, but they can also be wise and witty and as on her tale of Monte Carlo, hint at darkness lurking just below the surface.
With a finger-picking guitar style that's unconventional, almost crab-like and awkward-looking, if relaxed sounding, she accompanies her lovely, pure voice with rhythmical figures and patterns, a percussive style that transferred naturally to glockenspiel on one song and sounded as if it might be derived from the African harp, the kora, on another.
Her most direct lyrics - and conversely her most searching melodies - worked best for me and her mantra-like intoning of "I love you so much I don't even know how to love you this much" had a disarming charm, as did her coaxing of the audience into a quick-fire call and response that produced the doubtless intended warm, congregational effect.
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