Determined to seek out all areas of the festival brought #TEAMw21 to the Showground Stage where sandwiched between the Whip Cracking Workshop and one for Flat Footing (?) was a set from Loud Mountains or to more accurate Loud Mountain as only one in the shape of Sean Duggan was present with brother Sean now having moved back Stateside.
Playing a set where no music had been played the rest of the weekend was somewhat unusual but as it progressed, the crowd steadily built including a number of other UK Americana artists who popped over to catch the proceedings and indeed some rays of September sunshine. The stage itself was pretty basic with some covering in a sort ot teepee tribute style, with a couple of speakers.
The set was formed of songs likely to appear on a Loud Mountains album due later this year as well and the odd classic that brought them to our attention in the first place. Playing with just a guitar and a harmonica this was always going to be a stripped back bare bones set but there was still plenty to take away from it.
The observational songwriting of "When Did You Wake Up" with its harmonica introduction immediately stood out. It was inevitably a song from the excellent "Love One Another" EP, "Eloise" that stole the show although a slowed down version of Bruce Springsteen's "Dancing In The Dark" did endeavour to seek out some new gravitas from one of the Boss's more populist hits. Closing with the single "8 Ball" there is still much to come from Loud Mountains as well as from a side project that Sean will be working on.