Welsh Folk scored a fantastic triumph as Calan, The Trials Of Cato, Martyn Joseph, Alaw, VRï, Gwilym Bowen Rhys and other exciting and inspiring artists were crowned trophy winners of the inaugural Wales Folk Awards 2019 – but the highest accolade went to Roy Saer, who was presented with the Lifetime Achievement Award for his…
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…
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,…
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…
Tim Jones is totally over the moon at the critics praising his latest album, Blossom And Fruit. Even the ultra-hip major player in the folk-roots world, the mighty fRoots Magazine, awarded the traditional singer, guitarist and prolific songwriter and his band The Dark Lanterns a massive five stars and placed Blossom And Fruit in their…
A new project to incorporate a pivotal collection – which includes 50 shanties and forebitters of the South Wales tall-ship sailors, thought to be long-lost for 50 years – into the world’s largest online searchable database of folk songs and music has been announced. The digitised collection of James Madison Carpenter, which has previously only…
CWLWM CELTAIDD: Grand Pavilion, Porthcawl, March 9-12, 2017: The good folk of Porthcawl didn’t know what had hit them; packed away in the Grand Pavilion, a flood of wonderful Celtic Magic bubbled, steamed and roared, and dancers and musicians from Wales, Cornwall, The Isle Of Man, Ireland and Scotland played, partied and delivered such jaw-dropping,…
JIM BAINBRIDGE: Llantrisant Folk Club, Pontyclun Institute Athletic Club, March 8, 2017 Jim has been travelling all through his long life, far and wide; from the Marsden Folk Club in the Tyneside town of South Shields, where he was a member of The Marsden Rattlers ceilidh band, to Kent, West Cork in Ireland (where he…
THE CELTIC FIDDLE FESTIVAL: Roots Unearthed, Lefel 3 Lounge, St David’s Hall, Cardiff, February 21, 2017 The Celtic Fiddle Festival were celebrating 25 years of performing together with a special tour, and the Lefel 3 Lounge was crowded out with eager punters all hoping to see and hear the latest fireworks – and they were…
THE JIGANTICS: Llantrisant Folk Club, Pontyclun Institute Athletic Club, September 14, 2016 The Jigantics are an amazing phenomenon. The five musicians break every rule in the folk-police book as they deliver their interpretations of yee-haw country hits, Chuck Berry rock material and a welter of Americana, all richly ladled into exquisite guitar riffs, drum rolls,…