Originally wrote this for Poached Magazine.

This was the 4th year of Timbre Rock & Roots.

Venue: Fort Canning Green is a pretty nice place to catch live acts. We’ve caught Slash and Mr. Big there before, and both gigs were great – good sound, good atmosphere.

We also have to mention how wonderful the staff were for Rock & Roots – the ticket-checking folk and the security people were exceptionally cheery and kind, and they totally added to our festival experience. Thanks guys!

Let’s get to it. Day 1.

Described by Elton John as the “greatest living songwriter”, Rufus Wainwright played an intimate solo set, alternating between the piano and guitar. He came onstage wearing flamboyant, colourful pants and rockstar shades. He spoke with a stereotypical gay lisp (he describes himself as “flaming”), and dedicated a song (written for Brokeback Mountain!) to “all the homosexuals- live long and prosper.”

It was interesting to witness the crowd cheering in approval – has Singapore become more supportive of the LGBT movement, or is the rock-festival crowd a little more liberal? It was pleasant either way.

While he made some self-deprecating jokes (“Hopefully someday I’ll be able to afford a band,”) and showed us his Hello Kitty acoustic guitar (which amused the crowd greatly), he’s also clearly a theatrical man who sees the world as a stage. “Yes! I’ll marry you in Saudi Arabia,” he responded wittily to a proposal from the crowd, “Where I can have many husbands!”

Musically, he was sublime – he played ballads with vast, haunting melodies (clear opera influence), intricate pianowork, and pitch-perfect vocals that quivered with sincerity. His lyrics were simultaneously idiosyncratic and introspective. He did a raw cover of Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah”. He played two particularly personal songs – “Martha” for his sister, and “Zebulon” for his mother’s death.

Unfortunately for Rufus, most of the crowd were there to catch Robert Plant, and many were using his set as an opportunity to socialize and get food and drinks – so there were some awkward moments. His songs would’ve gotten the sombre reception they deserve if performed in a concert hall.

Still, we appreciated his intensity, and we’re sure we weren’t the only ones. He simultaneously took himself very seriously (he told off some backstage crew for chatting too loudly during “Zebulon”) and not at all (“This next song is going to get a little weird again,” he said before playing it).

Robert Plant and the Sensational Shape-Shifters.

The act everybody came to see. The 5000-strong crowd swelled and surged in anticipation as the banner (the only act on both nights to have their own!) fell, revealing a psychedelic image of Plant in his youth.

It’s interesting what age does to a person, to a man, to a rockstar (Plant was the lead singer of Led Zeppelin, the band that brought us “Stairway to Heaven” and “Whole Lotta Love”). We couldn’t help noticing his man-boobs (it probably didn’t help that he was wearing a thin white t-shirt!), but we found him wonderfully charming nevertheless.

Plant was always a mystical storyteller, even in his Led Zeppelin days – and now that he’s shed his identity as a young sex symbol, he’s gone “full witchdoctor”.  Taking us on what he called a “questionably good time”, Plant reminded us of Ian Gillan from Deep Purple with his manners and class.

The band experienced some minor technical difficulties (Plant’s microphone wasn’t fully capturing his voice), and the crowd roared its approval when he received a substitute. It was visceral – clearly, many people have been waiting decades to see even a quarter of Led Zeppelin in the flesh.

The Sensational Shape-Shifters demonstrated themselves worthy of their name, going from rock’n’roll to folk to psychedelia between songs. They reinterpreted old Zeppelin classics, deconstructing them and putting them through all sorts of interesting lenses and perspectives. It was aurally unsettling in a good way.

Plant brought in some world music influences, getting Gambian musician Juldeh Camara onstage with the ritti (an African one-stringed fiddle) to add Afro-centric polyrhythmic sounds to the jam onstage. It also happened to be Juldeh’s birthday, and Plant led the crowd in a hearty singalong.

Those who left after Robert Plant missed out.  Susan Tedeschi and Derek Trucks (described by some as First Couple of Guitar) closed the first night with a set of polished, soulful, blues-y rock.

We first heard of Truck when he was playing fingerstyle slide guitar with Eric Clapton back in 2006 as a young man. A search on YouTube yields videos of him playing amazing stuff even when he was 13 years old.  He’s become amazingly, fantastically expressive with his guitar playing. Truck’s one of those people who force you to redefine your idea of what “good” is.

The whole band is spectacularly classy and soulful. Truck’s wife Tedeschi held her own wonderfully, with a  gingerly-whiskeyed blues voice. While The Sensational Shape-Shifters had an urgent quality about them, the Tedeschi Trucks band was calm, relaxed, chill.

A beautiful end to a beautiful night.

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Day 2. The crowd today seemed a little more relaxed and laidback. Fewer rowdy Led Zeppelin rockers, more gentle Paul Simon fans, maybe?

Bonnie Raitt was a real gem. She was soulful. Bluesy. Her music was stuff you could comfortably dance to after a long day. She carried herself with the grace of a benevolent legend. “I’m just happy to still be here doing this,” she drawled.

There was an emotional moment in the crowd as she played “I Can’t Make You Love Me,” an old classic that surely evoked lots of memories for everybody.

She was confident, classy, polished – a “grand old dame” in the best possible sense of the term. Her musicianship was inspiring and humbling for the younger musicians among us – her skill with the slide on her electric guitar was formidable, yet she carried herself as if it were no big deal. She had a calm, gentle demeanour, and very visibly a great time.

Paul Simon (of Simon and Garfunkel fame) was the man most of the crowd came to see. It was interesting for us young ones to participate in the phenomena.

He had a huge band, including a multi-talented guitarist with massive sideburns and an entire horn section. The band was incredibly versatile, playing all sorts of genres of music, reinterpreting Simon’s repertoire through all sorts of lenses.

In an amusing moment, he got a young boy to get up on stage and dance during “Late In The Evening”. We were most moved when he returned for an encore with a solo acoustic rendition of “The Sound Of Silence,” which was eerily beautiful. While we might’ve been too young to appreciate Simon’s repertoire, we were clearly in the presence of a legend.

 Jimmy Cliff, though, was perhaps the most interesting act and might just be the one we’ll remember forever.

He had a large band of uniformed musicians from Jamaica, who worked the crowd up admirably. His bass player appeared – to us, at least – to be high as f*ck (hopefully on the music!). The band brought their culture with them – all of them dressed in bright yellow, dancing to the music. Cliff himself came out later, and he was a sight to behold in his dazzling red tracksuit. He (and the band) gave off an unending positive energy – which was also the source of the most surreal moment during the entire festival.

The band was unapologetically hippie and political, calling out to the crowd to sing along to “Save Our Planet Earth” and “Afghanistan”. It was rather disturbing to watch people singing and dancing – we noticed some drunk white girls grinding each other as Cliff sang about starvation and ecological degradation.

If we had to contribute some constructive criticism for the festival, it might’ve been the use of our familiar Singaporean DJs as emcees, and silly things like lucky draws – are they really necessary? We got the sense that the DJs were mostly going through the motions. It would’ve been pretty cool to have, say, some local comedians emceeing instead. But we’re wishful thinkers.

Will we be going for the next Rock & Roots festival? You bet. It was a soulful, enriching experience, with an interesting and engaging lineup and a fun atmosphere.

Thank you Timbre for having us!