THE PITMEN POETS Blackwood Miners’ Institute: January 8, 2016 Last year, I reviewed The Pitmen Poets’ live CD, and I praised it to the skies. Now Billy Mitchell, Bob Fox, Benny Graham and Jez Lowe have launched the South Wales leg of their British tour in the former mining town of Blackwood, and the FolkWales…
Iain Campbell wrote this obituary for The Living Tradition magazine; FolkWales Online Magazine is grateful to him for giving his permission to reproduce it. Keith was a familiar figure at folk venues throughout South Wales and sometimes beyond as he sought to sell copies of the magazine Taplas that he founded in 1982. Keith was…
It’s the festive season and the turn of the year, and time for the Mari Lwyd to be calling at houses and pubs and wishing them good luck. The Mari Lwyd – a horse’s skull carried by one of the party, disguised by a white sheet – used to be a purely a local custom, bounded…
SWEET LIBERTIES: Roots Unearthed, St David’s Hall, Cardiff, November 27, 2015 Six musicians, including the charismatic and mesmerising Martyn Joseph and BBC Folk Singer Of The Year Nancy Kerr, staged this fascinating show, celebrating 800 years of democracy since the signing of Magna Carta and 750 years since the Simon de Montfort parliament. The English…
JAMIE SMITH’S MABON Roots Unearthed, Lefel 3 Lounge, St David’s Hall, Cardiff: November 17, 2015 It was an album launch party to end all album launch parties – and still the punters crowded in to cheer, sing, clap, dance, whoop and wish The Space Between every success. Jamie Smith’s Mabon had made the arduous six-hour…
FAIRPORT CONVENTION takes the stage at St David’s Hall in Cardiff city centre for their self-styled “Wintour” this Sunday, January 31 at 7.30pm. Hailed as the originators of British folk-rock music, the five musicians have been one of Britain’s best-loved bands for nearly 50 years. The five musicians have been described by The Guardian as…
HUW WILLIAMS: Llantrisant Folk Club, Pontyclun Institute Athletic Club, November 11, 2015 It was a full house for Huw Williams, and rightly so. The man is a brilliant songwriter, champion Eisteddfod clog-dancer, adventurous guitarist, bizarre storyteller, Welsh bagpiper, manager of Cool Cymru ambassadors Calan and erstwhile half of a duo with Tony Williams, who conquered the…
FAUSTUS Roots Unearthed, Lefel 3 lounge, St David’s Hall, Cardiff: October 27, 2015 If ever you become embroiled in a heated discussion when the tired and erroneous adage about boring folk music rears its ugly head, just take my advice: frog-march the erring individual down to the nearest Faustus concert, stick him in the front…
AN TRI DIPOP Llantrisant Folk Club, Pontyclun Institute Athletic Club: October 21, 2015 The spectacular Breton quartet An Tri Dipop performed an entrancing debut in Llantrisant Folk Club’s plush and welcoming home, Pontyclun Institute Athletic Club – and it seems as if the venue was transported 400 miles away to a Breton bar, where you…
CYLCHCANU/SONGCHAIN 2 Roots Unearthed, Lefel 3 Lounge, St David’s Hall, Cardiff: October 14, 2015 Last year, we watched in total fascination as a new musical creation called Cylchcanu/Songchain toured theatres and concert halls around Wales; a meeting of musicians gathered together to explore the rich and magical Welsh folk culture, but a tradition that…