ALAW, MORFA, MANSANT: Tredegar House Folk Festival Benefit Night, Newport Folk Club, Fugitives Sports Club, Rogerstone Newport Folk Club played welcoming hosts to a jam-packed, memorable and celebratory night, just bubbling and brimming over with feel-good, joyous and utterly ingenious music from Wales and further beyond. The evening proudly advertised Tredegar House Folk Festival, which…
“There’s a thriving music scene in Wales at the moment, and we want to bring that energy onto the Pavilion stage this year” – these are the words of Angharad Jenkins, member of award-winning folk band, Calan, and one of those involved in creating Pendevig, a brand-new 15-musician-strong juggernaut starring some of Wales’s leading players.…
GRETCHEN PETERS: Roots Unearthed, St David’s Hall, Cardiff, June 12, 2018 Gretchen Peters is glad to be touring Wales and other parts of the UK, far away from the gloomy administration-led unpredictability, uneasy violence and irrational madness that has damaged her country’s reputation and honour so much. As she and her three-man band finally closed…
Spectacular Welsh trio Alaw have been invited to play at London’s Royal Albert Hall as part the BBC Proms on August 3, 2018. They join a mouth-watering line-up, including Scottish Gaelic singer Julie Fowlis, Irish musician Jarlath Henderson, Sam Lee, The Unthanks, the BBC Concert Orchestra and conductor Stephen Bell. The trio has been playing together since 2013,…
ALLAN YN Y FAN: Blackwood Miner’s Institute, March 28, 2018 Widely regarded as one of Wales’ foremost traditional bands, since their formation in 1996, Allan Yn Y Fan have taken Welsh traditional music all over the world (writes Dave Chamberlain). This Wednesday, however, saw the band performing closer to home with a gig at one of their favourite…
MARTYN JOSEPH: Roots Unearthed, L3 Lounge, St David’s Hall, Cardiff, January 16, 2018 There’s an old and well-loved newspaper headline proclaiming: “Local Boy Makes Good” – and Roots Unearthed concert seats were sold out two weeks ago for this local boy. In fact, the seats could have been sold out twice over, and the L3…
VRÏ: Llantrisant Folk Club, Pontyclun Athletic Social Club, January 10, 2018 Patrick Rimes, Jordan Price Williams and Aneirin Jones have only been together a short time, but their impressive reputation has preceded them; and Llantrisant Folk Club was packed out to the gills with eager punters just waiting to hear their set. The air of…
Two years ago, I drove to the Borough Theatre in Abergavenny to review a Finnish four-fiddle band who rejoice in the name of Frigg. The seven musicians trooped on stage, seriously stepped on the gas and totally blew me away with their fantastic, singing sound that only a quartet of violins can claw at the…
EMILY BARKER BAND / LUKAS DRINKWATER: Clwb Ifor Bach, Cardiff, November 4, 2017 Memphis has Beale Street, New Orleans has Bourbon Street, thoroughfares known the world over for their vibrant music scene. If you’re in Cardiff and fancy sampling live music in the Welsh capital, then head to Womanby Street; it’s a medieval street lined with…
