UK Folk Star Laura Marling Captivates Folk Fest Audience

“Does anyone have any good jokes?” Laura Marling asked the crowd gathered to watch her at the Calgary Folk Festival on Saturday, July 24th, when her microphones began to act up and stall the show midway. The young indie folk musician flew down from the UK, taking a break from touring with her boyfriend Marcus Mumford and his band Mumford and Sons to play to the few hundred sitting under the sweltering sun in Calgary.

Opening with Devil’s Spoke, Laura and her band immediately mesmerized fans and first-time listeners alike with her strong vocals and lovable English personality. Unfortunately, technical issues started right after that, but were luckily fixed (or so they thought) through the next two songs.

Following Ghosts, the band left, leaving Laura to perform the next few songs solo. The 20-year-old artist was stopped halfway through the heart-wrenching Blackberry Stone due to more problems with her microphone. This time, the persistent singer unplugged her acoustic guitar and stepped away from the microphone, asking the crowd to help her sing through Alas I Cannot Swim. This is at least the second time that Laura hasn’t let anything stop her from performing. When she was only 17, she was booked to play in a pub in England and when she showed up, the owner realized she couldn’t come in to play because she was underage. Laura did as Laura would; she took out her guitar and played her set on the sidewalk.

Fortunately, the rest of the set continued without a glitch, saving her voice. Despite her young age, Laura Marling showed maturity by playing songs like Made by Maid, which she explained is based on an old folk tale about human nature. After her band joined her on stage again, it was amazing to listen to My Manic and I, with its chilling melancholy lyrics sung live while thinking about how it was written when she was only 16.

Almost at the end of her time slot, she talked about her song Goodbye England, about how her father took her up a hill to an amazing view and asked her to bring him back before he died. “I was only about eight years old, so that was a rather morbid thing for him to say,” She told the crowd.

She wrapped up the hour-long gig with the title track of her second and latest album, I Speak Because I Can, which left people wishing it wasn’t over. Laura Marling’s breathtaking performance, voice and acoustics kept the crowd intrigued, making the hour seem very short.

As Marling is mainly an unknown musician in North America, only about 20 fans lined up outside the back of the tent for a chance to meet her after the concert. Not in any rush, she talked to every single person waiting, taking each compliment to heart and sometimes even seeming surprised at the admiring fans. A few times, she was asked to take a picture with someone, but the down-to-earth singer refused politely saying, “Sorry, I don’t do photos.”

Getting the chance to meet her, I immediately asked her about the connection between the lyrics, “I never held your hand as you were lowered,” in Blackberry Stone and the song, Hold My Hand as I’m Lowered, by her ex-boyfriend Charlie Fink, lead singer of Noah and the Whale. At first, she was confused about it, not even realizing that his song was written before hers, and then started laughing at the coincidence.

Laura Marling’s second album has ranked high on the UK’s album charts, she’s toured the world and even inspired artists like Charlie Fink and Beans on Toast to write about her. Laura never stops impressing, and her performance in Calgary proved her to be a true musician, completely ego-free.