An innovative three-year Trac Cymru project which involves schools and communities in Rhondda Cynon Tâf and Neath Port Talbot has been awarded a whopping £206,000 by The National Heritage Lottery Fund. ‘Cân y Cymoedd: When Valleys Sing’ aims to connect villagers in the Cynon Valley and the Amman Valley area with their local history and…
Other Voices Cardigan / Lleisiau Eraill Aberteifi is coming to Cardigan – and it has revealed the first wave of live performers set to take to the festival’s stages from October 26-28. Irish singer-songwriter Susan O’Neill, Machynlleth-born triple harpist Cerys Hafana, Italian alt-pop act Sans Soucis and acclaimed Welsh rockers Adwaith have all been announced…
It was only by chance that Wilmot: A Musical Journey came to fruition. Chris Dale is an impressive guitarist, a lovely songwriter and a stalwart of Llantrisant Folk Club; his son married a girl from Annan, a small Scottish border town on the River Annan, which is just near the Solway Firth. Chris unearthed a…
by Mick Tems The fiddles-and-cello chamber-folk trio VRï and veteran singer, songwriter and Welsh language campaigner Dafydd Iwan shared two accolades at the prestigious Wales Folk Awards, held at the Hoddinott Hall in the Wales Millennium Centre, Cardiff Bay on Thursday, April 20. Dafydd wrote the most remarkable ‘sleeper’ song in the galaxy. He composed…
Expand the Table of Contents to find the review you want DECEMBER 2019 MR H It’s Never Too Late Barium Villa Records www.mrhmusic.net/ A few years ago, a songwriter called Mr H packed his acoustic guitar, left his home in Mid-Wales and displayed his bourbon-and-cigars voice to an unsuspecting Llantrisant Folk Club, taking control of…
It’s a national yearly celebration; Gŵyl Dydd Dewi Sant, Wednesday, March 1, and impressive Aberystwyth trio Three Legg’d Mare absolutely delighted and amazed the Llantrisant Folk Club audience with their no-punches-pulled winning show. The band consists of powerful-voiced singer Kate Saunders, who plays Appalachian mountain dulcimer, guitar and Shruti, Rhondda-born singer Jon Davies (concertina, bouzouki,…
Fiddler and step-dancer Jocelyn is from the Canadian West Coast and ‘cellist Ellen is based in Washington DC on the American East Coast; those awe-inspiring logistics and the thousands of miles seem to have conspired to keep these two musicians apart. More to the point, Ellen has even moved to Glasgow and is currently pursuing…
Musician and Welsh music visionary Ceri Rhys Matthews lives with his golden-voiced wife Julie Murphy many miles away in the West Wales village of Pencader, Carmarthenshire (writes Mick Tems.) Nowadays, he is preoccupied with his music tutoring, his Yscolan workshops in Pembrokeshire and The Gallery arts centre in High Street, Swansea, and both he and…
Expand the Table of Contents (below) to find the review you want AUGUST 2023 FILKIN’S DRIFT Rembard’s Retreat (EP) TRAD025 www.filkinsmusic.com Filkin’s Drift are a Cardiff and Gloucestershire guitar-and-fiddle-led duo, consisting of Seth Bye and Chris Roberts; to promote their debut EP, their challenging project is CERDD//ED, an arduous 870-mile long-distance tramp across the Wales…
The Spooky Men’s Chorale, The Welsh Folk Prom, St David’s Hall, Cardiff: July 25, 2019 Dave Chamberlain & Siân Northey reviewed: Wales has a long and proud tradition of male choral singing, the Morriston Orpheus and the Treorchy Male Voice choirs being perhaps the best known internationally – but it was an Anglo-Antipodean ensemble taking…