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…
The National Eisteddfod, Wales’ largest festival of culture, music, dance and literature, will be held in Ynysangharad War Memorial Park in the town of Pontypridd on August 3-10, 2024 – and historians and musicians have been and will be marking the famous 19th Century Aberdare harper and prolific composer Thomas David Llewelyn, who took the…
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. The celebrated harp-and-violin duo Catrin Finch and Aoife Ní Bhriain, Irish singer-songwriter Susan O’Neill, Machynlleth-born triple harpist Cerys Hafana, Italian alt-pop act Sans…
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 NOVEMBER 2023 SEÁN HEELY Dramagical Independent label; no catalogue number www.seanheely.com/ ***** FIVE STAR CHOICE! ***** He may be American-born and based in Washington DC, but young fiddle wizard Seán Heely performs, composes, nurtures, teaches and breathes Celtic music – especially his well-loved…