bonus cd – Ad VERToRIAL YOUR BONUS FREE WALEs WELcoMEs WoMEX CD Wales, like a little island found drifting in the Irish Sea, has enjoyed the power of word, rhythm and melody for generations. You’ll find art forms centuries old with the earliest Welsh language poems dating back to the sixth century. I’ve dug up a treasure chest of sonic gems, unlocked it so that you can have a peek inside. From the pibgorn to the crwth, from the beating stick and poetry, to the familiar harp and choir, I hope you fall a little in love. Hwyl am y tro (have a fun time). Cerys Matthews 1 FERnhILL ‘WAsod’ 6 TREoRchy MALE VoIcE 11 Cate LE bon I had to start with this – Julie choIR ‘MEn oF hARLEch’ ‘hWyLIo MEWn cyFoG’ Murphy’s vocals, startling and crystal. Rugby, male voice choirs, Cate has been compared with Nico, Robert Plant and Danny Thompson miners, daffodils, hymns, leeks, and Bobbie Gentry and Syd Barrett and has are both huge fans. Fernhill harps... all great Welsh clichés. Whether an incredibly haunting vocal style. She’s consistently come up trumps with in pubs, sports terraces, Eisteddfods or a modern artist still very informed by some great arranging, note placement weddings, it won’t take much for groups her traditional Welsh roots, though she and musicianship. of Welsh to burst forth into song. chooses to mostly work in a more driving and electric style. 2 MEREdydd Evans 7 Gareth bonELLo ‘y GELynnEn’ ‘AnTIFFonI’ 12 Calan The godfather of Welsh folk has been ‘Folk singer for the Gentle Good, ‘sWAnsEA hosEPIPE’ a collector, editor, historian and writer of songs in English and These youngsters from all corners of performer for the past 70 years. Cymraeg, distracted naturalist’ is how Wales have a great attitude to the old Meredydd, along with his wife Phyllis, Gareth describes himself on Twitter. tunes bringing tons of energy and have done wonders to safeguard the Last year he travelled to China and irreverence to their high-tempo Welsh folk tradition. wrote an album based on the life of playing. They see themselves as young the famous poet Li Bai. ambassadors for the old Welsh 3 LLIo RhyddERch reels, blending accordion, fiddle, guitar, ‘conset y sIRI’ 8 MEIc Stevens Welsh pipes, harp and clog tapping. Llio, now in her 70s, plays the triple ‘dIc PEndERyn’ harp – a harp with three rows with Meic Stevens is a truly legendary 13 sIAn JAMEs the one in the middle playing the figure in Wales. In the 70s he was ‘EI dI’R dERyn du’ chromatic notes. Her charismatic and compared to Bob Dylan. In my Wales This song was collected in the intuitive playing is astonishing. he can rule as king. This song is Carmarthenshire area in the 1940s. It about a coal miner, Dic Penderyn, tells of love letters being sent by 4 EuRos chILds ‘RoEdd arrested for stabbing a soldier during blackbirds. Sian has captured hI’n noFIo yn y boRE the Merthyr Rising of June 1831. something good in this version where bAch’ (shE WAs she accompanies herself on the harp. sWIMMInG In ThE EARLy 9 cAss MEuRIG houRs) ‘sbonc boGEL’ 14 GWyneth GLyn For me, this is how the spirit of old The crwth, a strange and ancient ‘y FoRFoRWyn’ Wales sounds in a modern musician, Welsh droning string instrument, has This is a lover’s lament, whose passed down through the years as if it some similarities to the modern-day imagery is derived from a game were spring water purified by the violin. Cass Meurig does a sterling Gwyneth’s mother used to play with rock through which it flows. Euros’ job of making its crazy set up of six her as a child, in which they were voice stands free and bare and strings, flat bridge, leather strap and both mermaids washed up on the beautiful. fingerboard sing. shore, inventing romantic names for one another. Its romance, yearning 5 cERys MatthEWs 10 y DatgeinIAId and lyricism is very typically Welsh. ‘MyfanWy’ featuRInG TWM MoRys That’s me, and so I want to leave you ‘AWdL I ddEWI’ 15 Catrin FInch smiling, wondering and curious Twm, who has always had the ‘Beth yW’R hAF I MI’ about this odd, plaintive but maverick touch of someone like I love the dreamlike quality of this, as passionate, harmony-soaked land of Shane McGowan, brings this ancient the melody drifts in and out over an song of ours. I’ve collected songs poem to life. Written by Dafydd insistent piano motif. The protagonist from all over the world since I was Llwyd ap Llywelyn ap Gruffudd laments the loss of their lover and with nine and this one is surely one of the (c1400-1490), it’s thought to be this loss, is no longer able to enjoy any best (unrequited) love songs in that calling for St David’s aid in the Battle of the world’s pleasures, bringing us to large and motley collection. of Bosworth in 1485. the end of this particular Welsh dream..