members Christy O' Leary and John Coakley and have kept that lineup ever
since.
Current Lineup
Aly Bain Fiddle
Cathal McConnell Flute and Tin Whistle, Vocals
Dave Richardson Mandolin, cittern, English concertina, button accordion
Christy O' Leary Uileann pipes, tin whistle, mouth-organ and vocals
Chris Newman Guitar
4. Rag Foundation
Woollard's band, Rag Foundation, from Swansea, is one of several
groups of young urban musicians who have come to traditional music in the
way they have come to the Welsh language, through questioning their
identity, their cultural distinctiveness. They have been described by the
trade press as the most dynamic band to emerge from Wales for many years.
Their current albums 'Minka' and 'South by SouthWest' have been critically
acclaimed by press, TV, radio and festival organisers. They have toured
extensively in many countries as far apart as Canada, Latvia, India,
Holland, Egypt, Hungary and France as well as the UK. Woollard's own story
is quite remarkable: introduced to traditional music by a fiddle player
recording a session for a trip-hop outfit he was in, he began researching
songs of his region, came across Phil Tanner… and discovered he was his
great uncle. But Woollard's style owes as much to Tom Jones and Shirley
Bassey - the total commitment to the song of the working class, pub singer
of South Wales - as it does to folk music. When Rag Foundation performed
for the first time in London the people running the venue were surprised
when two busloads of young urban ravers pitched up too. "We have this
following of clubbers who come round with us," Woollard explained. "What
we're doing is dance music, which is what they're into. Ours is just an
older version of it." Even so, it is the power of the traditional song that
inspires Rag Foundation, and Woollard inhabits rather than exploits the
material. "I want to bring these songs to an audience my age, but I don't
want to stick drum and bass all over them. It's in the performance. If
you're honest in your delivery what you're singing about will come across."
5. Fernhill.
Since they formed in 1996, Fernhill have become important cultural
ambassadors for Wales and its music, having toured in 20 countries
including performances for the King of Swaziland and the President of
Mozambique. 'These daring musical deconstructionists have become the prime
movers in a crop of talented bands injecting new life and an exciting
contemporary dynamic into traditional Welsh music' .
LIVE BAND LINE-UP
Julie Murphy vocals
Richard Llewellyn guitar
Cass Meurig fiddle
Tomos Williams trumpet
Andy Coughlan double bass
Paradoxically they only had one Welsh member when they achieved
national attention, bagpiper and guitarist Ceri Rhys Matthews from the
Swansea valley. Yet Essex-born Julie Murphy has lived in Wales for many
years and, totally absorbed in the culture and history of the country,
sings confidently in the Welsh language when the occasion demands it. Not
that they play exclusively Welsh music. They also perform English folk
songs, impassioned Breton tunes and vibrant French songs while fully
embracing the modern roots ideology, introducing the influences of their
many travels, notably African and Eastern European music.
Julie Murphy met Ceri Matthews at art college in Maidstone, and when
the course was over she returned to Wales with him, learning the language
and absorbing the culture. Although she had no folk background to speak of,
Murphy developed a natural feel for performing traditional songs, and she
and Matthews started working as a duo. They met Jonathan Shorland in 1986
when they were on the same bill at the Pontardawe folk festival. Shorland
joined them on stage playing the pibgorn, a Welsh horn pipe, and they
started working together with three other musicians as a music and art
group called Saith Rhyfeddod.
Raised in the New Forest, Shorland had become obsessed by reed
instruments as a devotee of David Munro’s music programme on Radio 3 while
at Aberystwyth University. He became an expert in Celtic traditions,
learning to make bagpipes and travelling extensively in Eastern Europe and
Brittany, playing regularly with Breton musicians. He is said to be the
first person to introduce the bombard into Welsh music.
Murphy teamed up with Blowzabella’s ex-hurdy gurdy player Nigel
Eaton, resulting in the experimental Whirling Pope Joan project which made
a big impact with its alternative rhythms and challenging material. Also
involved in the project was Andy Cutting, a melodeon and accordion ace from
Harrow brought up in a family steeped in English traditional music. When
invited on a British Council tour in Gaza, Murphy invited Andy Cutting to
accompany her. When in 1996 Tim Healey of Beautiful Jo Records invited
Julie Murphy, Ceri Matthews and Jonathan Shorland to contribute to a
compilation of Celtic music, they roped in Andy Cutting.
The result was Fernhill, who have subsequently toured
extensively and produced a series of fine albums which reaffirm the rich
spirit of Welsh folk music while moving boldly into new areas. Mixing oboe
with bagpipes, diatonic accordion, guitar and numerous other instruments
they have challenged all preconceptions about folk music, recognising no
dividing line between Welsh dance music and the roots music of Kenya,
Pakistan or any point beyond.
They now work mainly as a trio of Murphy, Matthews and Cutting,
but all are involved with other musicians as they strive to break down
further barriers between musical style and the audience it appeals to.
They have recorded three critically acclaimed albums; the
latest, Whilia, was a top twenty album in the Folk Roots poll 2000.
Fernhill created a new musical landscape from the indigenous dance rhythms
and folk poetry of Wales. Julie Murphy's passionate singing combined with
guitar, fiddle, double bass and trumpet produces a sound both gutsy and
enchanting.
In 2001 the band contributed a performance to the film 'Beautiful
Mistake' about the Welsh music scene which includes performances by James
Dean Bradfield, Catatonia, Super Furry Animals, and Gorkys Zygotic Mynci.
Julie Murphy also collaborated with ex velvet underground member John Cale;
he accompanied her on a track from her solo album Black Mountains Revisited
(a MOJO folk album of 99).
6. The renaissance of Welsh traditional music
Manic Street Preachers, Catatonia and even Tom Jones assure Welsh
people that their identity is not naff. Gorki's Zygotic Mynki, Super Furry
Animals and Datblygu prove that indeed it's cool - and that singing in
Welsh is no obstacle to commercial success. People are beginning to
remember that the Velvet Underground founder member John Cale's first
language is Welsh (earlier this year he was in Cardiff working with
musicians who prefer to perform in it).
Neil Browning is part of a growing movement in Wales, one that is not
out to preserve the old folk music, but to make it come alive, to breathe
again. While he has a great knowledge and respect for the old tunes and the
old ways, he is not hestitant to push it as much as the song requires.
Neil has contributed three pieces to the festival. The first is
straight traditional music for accordion, guitar and bodhran. The second is
an original tune that is decidedly contemporary, adventuring into a global
turf while still maintaining a distinct Welsh air to it. The third is
another traditional tune (title unknown), but with the accompaniment of
classical guitar, it takes on a new and different feeling.
Nansi Richards plays orally learned melodies and variations
with clarity and passion. Her variations are vibrant, ringing out with the
sound only a triple-strung harp can make. She also plays the more common
single-strung harp beautifully on several of the tracks.
There are many reasons for this renewed self-confidence; the
growing appetite for the music of other cultures, a degree of political
autonomy and, not least, the success of those who did devote themselves to
the cause of Welsh. They may not have produced much great music, but they
assured that not only is the language surviving, people can converse in it
in some security, relax and just get on with life.
So they are beginning to look about them, hack their way through the
overgrown and almost forgotten paths to the spring of their traditional
music. It's still flowing. The new Rough Guide to the Music of Wales CD
opens with a harp tune by Llio Rhydderch, who was brought up in a master-
pupil teaching tradition that stretches back to the fourteenth century.
There's also a recording she made of her teacher Nansi Richards, who was
steeped in the aesthetic and technique of eighteenth century harpers. What
is striking and refreshing about both players is their power. If you find
most Celtic harp music plinking and fey, the strength as well as the beauty
of this ancient music will be a welcome surprise.
The Welsh tradition is untouched," says Neil Woollard, gleefully. "So
the music is more open to interpretation. I know we've got the perfect
opportunity here, setting the parameters of what you can do.
Tradition" is the organic element of world culture. Pop music by its
very nature is disposable. The only future for a great pop song is as
nostalgia. The tradition however is timeless and recyclable and is renewed
as each generation discovers its roots. - Billy Bragg, musician
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