LAU – Roots Unearthed, Lefel 3, St David’s Hall, Cardiff: February 8, 2016 Exceptional fiddler Aidan O’Rourke, master guitarist and singer Kris Drever and keyboard visionary Martin Green brought the Republic of Lau-land to the Roots Unearthed stage when they presented their brand-new album, The Bell That Never Rang; six tracks of freewheeling and freeform…
FAIRPORT CONVENTION – St David’s Hall, Cardiff: January 30, 2016 It all comes round again… a typical Fairport Convention concert tour is reminiscent of the wheeling year, an old trusty calendar or, like another annual winter custom, the hope that spring will blossom for another year. A Fairport evening is like a meeting of old…
OYSTERS3 – Roots Unearthed, Lefel 3 Lounge, St David’s Hall: February 26, 2015 Aberystwyth-born John Jones, lead vocalist and melodeon player of the mighty and well-loved Oysterband, described the stripped-down acoustic trio of core members and founders Ian Telfer and Alan Prosser as “Our voyage of discovery” – and judging by the whoops, rapturous applause…
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…