Another visit to the Paddock Stage for Joe Martin, one of the few performers during the whole weekend to play solo if you exclude the "In The Round" sessions.
Fresh from his recent mini UK tour which was with a band, this was a return to more familiar territory and armed as ever only with a guitar and a batch of killer tunes - this was always set to be 30 minutes to savour.
Kicking off with "It Doesn't Rain In LA" it immediately became apparent that Joe did not really need a band anyway, his loud strumming and his vocals when allowed to let rip easily generated enough sound to more than fill the tent that was covering the Paddock Stage,
In a similar vein "Heartbreak Cult" had a furiously picked guitar and could not fail to raise a smile with the line about having his vinyl turned to ashtrays.
For reasons not entirely clear, it was about this time that the lighting engineer decided that Joe needed a light show behind him and it came just as he launched into his new uptempo song "High Gravity", The combination of light and music proving a great success, on release it'll have a full band behind it however todays acoustic version was equally enthralling.
Stepping away from his usual observational style for "Kaila Don't Go", this was shining a little light into his personal life, "wearing my heart on my sleeve". This was true troubadour stuff, at times almost dreamy - the sort of song you cannot wait to hear again as there seems to be so many details to pick out. Another new song, "Fell For A Promise" co written with Harriet Green, seemed primed to be recorded into a much bigger song, coming with a marvellously sustained note at one point.
Last time round on this stage "Daddy Gene" was just becoming part of Joe's set, now recorded and firmly established, the tale of a girl wanting her astronaut Dad to bring her home a moonbeam remains ever touching. In a strange moment of planetary allignment as Joe sung, the sun momentarily came out and everything just seemed that little better with the world.
