Performing at End of the Road 2010

Some festivals charge through summer all guns blazing, splattered with a messy surplus of mosh — a sardine-packed riot of glow-sticks, waving flags and over-hyped headliners. Not End of the Road, which sets itself apart by championing the simple virtues: chilled surroundings (Larner Tree Gardens in Wiltshire), quality food, and a musical roster tailor-made for the discerning fan. While it wouldn't be fitting to champion a fistful of A-listers over the other artists, such is the festival's even spread of talents, the ear is immediately drawn to stateside alt-gods Wilco ("Jesus, Etc."), Modest Mouse ("Float On") and Iron & Wine ("Flightless Bird, American Mouth"). American country blues, Canadian Atlantic folk, English eclectica . . . take your pick, in Next Steps.

Your End of the Road 2010 journey continues here with an solo early track ("Dance With Me") from sometime Moldy Peaches member Adam Green, released long before he attracted wider appreciation thanks to the Juno soundtrack. Multi-instrumentalist Jon Janes, aka the Mountains & the Trees, packs "Up & Down" with rustic charm and hint of salt from Newfoundland and Labrador; Minnesota's Charlie Parr serves up a plate of real-deal country blues on "1922 Blues"; and East London's Django Django confound an apparent nod towards Django Reinhardt with their wild, unclassifiable and electrifying sonic collage, "Wor". EOTR 2010's Nordic vein comes to the surface in Deep Cuts.

There's a subtle Nordic flavour to this year's End of the Road (one of the organisers is Swedish) so here's a taster — Pal Moddi Knutsen, aka Moddi, is a young man from a small island in the north of Norway who makes music that's "always larger in my head than what ends up on tape" . . . and you can sense his imagination delicately expanding on "A Sense of Grey" from debut album Floriography. For some Icelandic accents, look no further than Olof Arnalds (the lovely "Klara"), and Leif Vollebekk, who's based in Montreal but studied Icelandic and Philosophy in Reykjavik: "Te Og Kaffi" reveals a born storyteller's narrative fluency.

Inspired by Green Man but, in its fifth year, very confident in its own skin, End of the Road is shaping up to become the ideal small festival — big on musical quality throughout the card, small on corporate interference, and cloaked in an aura of appealing end-of-summer mellowness. This year's gathering of like-minded, alt-leaning, multi-national folkish connoisseurs at Larner Tree Gardens on the Dorset/Wiltshire border includes celebrated visitors Yo La Tengo ("I Feel Like Going Home") and the New Pornographers ("Sing Me Spanish Techno"), stunning experimentalists like the electro-rustic Caribou and the folktronic Meursault, and a host of artists from whose ranks you're sure to pluck your next favourite band. Will it be Lanterns on the Lake? Duotone? Timber Timbre? Take your time strolling through our End of the Road 2010 Essentials, and enlightenment will follow.