FOLK REVOLUTION !

THE CURLEW, sung by Maireid Sullivan.

Tommy, or the "Bard of Armagh",
played frequently in New York
with the Clancy Brothers


Here are some wonderful videos
of him in his early years,
showing the humour and craic
(and the genius) of the "common people".

The Little Beggarman

Johnny - I hardly knew ya...

Four green fields... Tommy Makem's song of Ireland

You can catch a lot of great programming on TG4
through their brilliant Web TV offering.

You just go to
http://www.tg4.ie
and click on the tab for "Web TV"

If you have Windows Media Player
or a Mac application like Flip4Mac,
it brings up a viewer wind-down
with a menu along the left-hand side
where you can pick a "music" menu
(Ceol cartlann), and it shows the titles
of all the folk recordings available to watch.
Several episodes of "Geantrai" lead the current list.

You can catch episodes of Bonanza, as well !

NEWS FROM CLYB Y BONT

Last month, at the Folk Club in Ponty'
one of the finest collections of folk musicians
entertained with sheer style, extending a warm
valleys welcome to RICHARD MERRYN,
a newcomer from Kernow.

£3,000 guitars were on display, a superb trio
from Ireland, with a depth of harmony rarely heard.
Soloists of all styles were topped with an intriguing duet
by our host, Richard and his delightful partner.

Richard's generosity even stretched to a lift
back to Penrhys, when Richard missed his train.
Richard left grinning ear to ear, with offers
of gig dates and loud applause ringing in his ears.
What an evening ! It's great to know this Club
is open for business and raring to go !


There's a FOLK EVENING at Clwb y Bont
on the last Wednesday of EVERY month.

Come along and enjoy some great craic !

at: Clwb y Bont,
85a Taff Street,
Pontypridd

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From the creators of the smash hit Celtic Woman
comes an new exciting Irish ballad group;-

The High Kings

Four top class performers create this unique ensemble,
re-energising Irish ballads and introducing new songs from Ireland.

Finbarr Clancy, Brian Dunphy, Martin Furey & Darren Holden
have come together to create the most exciting
group to emerge since The Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem
electrified the worldwide folk revival of the 1960s.

Finbarr Clancy from Carrick-on-Suir,
is the son of Bobby Clancy, who first
made his name as half of a duo with his sister Peg.
Later Bobby joined his brothers Liam, Paddy and Tom
in The Clancy Brothers after Tommy Makem had left.
Finbarr has played all over America with The Clancy Brothers
and as a solo artist, but for the past two years
he has been singing and entertaining in Shanghai.

Martin Furey, who lives in Kilmoganny, Co. Kilkennny,
is the son of Irish piper and singer, Finbar Furey.
The tradition in the Furey family goes back two hundred years
and multi-instrumentalist and singer Martin
is proudly carrying on the musical legacy.
Martin has played all over America and Europe as a solo artist
and also as a duo called Bohinta with his sister Aine.

Brian Dunphy from Dublin is the son of Sean Dunphy,
who was a star of the showband era in Ireland in the 1960s.
Following in his father's footsteps, Brian has
sung all over the world as a featured soloist with Riverdance.
He was also one of the Three Irish Tenors,
who performed successfully across America
and this past summer he was the star vocalist at
Doyle's Irish Cabaret in The Burlington Hotel in Dublin.

Darren Holden is from Mooncoin in Co. Kilkenny.
He started his career as a singer-songwriter and
in his early days he was managed by Louis Walsh.
Darren became a featured vocalist and toured the world
with Riverdance for years before he landed the lead role
on Broadway in the Billy Joel musical "Moving Out."
Darren starred on Broadway for two years and then
toured America with this highly successful show.
He is now back living in Ireland and coincidentally
he was just reengaging with Irish folk music
when he was invited to join The High Kings.


Learn more at the official website:

THE HIGH KINGS WEBSITE

A lot of Welsh music can sound a little "Laura Ashley" ....
Very pretty - yet lacking real HWYL !

Then along came Dafydd Iwan -
and blew ev'ryone's socks off !
(Still can't understand all the words -
but you KNOW what he's saying !)
To hear what I mean - PRESS THE LINK BELOW...

Dafydd Iwan .... Aaaah - Yma O Hyd !!!

Smithfield Fair

BEFORE WE CAN HAVE A DYNAMIC ADAPTIVE CULTURE...

Perhaps we'd better discover the older, sincere,
agriculturally based culture we had in the first place !

SHIMLI

SHIMLI – an old Welsh word meaning the informal gathering of young people
entertaining each other by means of dance, song and story telling while
they wait for the barley to dry.

http://www.theatre-wales.co.uk/news/newsdetail.asp?newsID=2694


* * *

By the way......
if you'd love to learn Welsh Folk dances....


PRESS THE LINKS BELOW !