The Greenbelt blog has been running a series of posts on why those coming to this year's Festival are excited about the line-up. So, this is my contribution.
First, from my point of view, there's a great music line-up this year. Two of my all-time favourites are playing - Gordon Gano and Mavis Staples - ably supported by Billy Bragg, Martyn Joseph, Beth Rowley, Kate Rusby, Show of Hands, Duke Special, and The Unthanks.
Gano, who is playing with the Ryans, was a member of the Violent Femmes. Formed in 1982 and discovered busking outside a Pretender's gig, the Femmes were among the first to combine punk's frenzy with country's resignation and gospel's jubilation. That full on clash of contradiction was the raison d'etre of the band (and something they were into long before the idea featured in U2's third coming). "That's the thing about this band," Gano once said, "in the songs, in the whole performance of them, there's all different levels of total contradiction going on at the same moment where we are serious and as far from being serious as possible, it's important and also far away from being important". It's also part of the "American tradition" - "Country music has a long tradition of singing horrible songs about drinking and sinning and then doing some sincere gospel numbers". This is where 'Country Death Song' gets its dark inspiration from - "I even think 'Country Death Song' is happy because all the awfulness of the song, it came out of my love for country music and I feel happy when I sing it. I must have a different perspective".
Mavis Staples is quite simply one of the world's greatest soul and gospel singers who, as part of The Staple Singers, gave soulful voice to the civil rights movement. The Staple Singers were inspired by Dr. Martin Luther King. Pops Staples said, “If he can preach it, we can sing it.” And sing it they did! Their vision of peace came out of the heartbreak of real life. I’ll Take You There was inspired when the President of their record company went to the funeral of his younger brother, who had been shot and killed. As he sat on the hood of an old bus in his father’s backyard, this man heard music in his head and these lyrics: "I know a place, ain't nobody worried, ain't nobody crying, ain't no smiling faces lying to the races, I'll take you there." In the place of despair, he had a vision of peace. He heard it and it wouldn't leave, it stayed there and the Staple Singers turned that vision into a call for peace. Theirs was a call for Civil Rights but as part of the coming of the Kingdom of God on earth.
Next, is another opportunity to view the Methodist Collection of modern and cotemporary art. This collection was established in the early 1960s by John Gibbs, an art collector and Methodist layman, who found the artistic quality of much 'religious art' and church furnishings very poor. He created a touring collection of work by contemporary artists exploring themes from the life of Christ to encourage a more imaginative approach to the commissioning and buying of paintings, sculpture and church furnishings. Gibbs invited the Rev. Douglas Wollen to create the Collection and gave him a largely free hand to decide the nature of the Collection and the artists and works to be included. The Collection includes such leading artists of the last 100 years, as Norman Adams, Elizabeth Frink, Patrick Heron, Georges Rouault and Graham Sutherland. The newest acquisitions to the collection include works by Craigie Aitchison, Maggi Hambling, Susie Hamilton and Peter Howson, while the newest acquisition, Christ Writes in the Dust by Clive Hicks-Jenkins, comes direct to Greenbelt from the artist’s major retrospective exhibition at the National Library of Wales.
Then there is the opportunity to hear the wisdom and challenge of speakers such as Rob Bell, Ann Morisy, Richard Burridge, Peter Rollins, Bob Holman, Shane Claiborne and Luke Bretherton.
Finally, and most importantly, there is the opportunity to catch up with the many friends who will also be there too.
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Violent Femmes - Used To Be.
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