events
PERHAPS unsurprisingly, the winter months tend
to coincide with a shortage of decent gigs on the
folk roots scene, so it’s always a relief when spring
finally arrives, musicians come out of hibernation
and the pages of the diary begin to fill. A cursory
glance at this month’s listings pages seems to
suggest that we’ve arrived at that point; in fact
April’s calendar is so full of good music, from
the legendary Peggy Seeger to brilliant young
Zimbabwean band Mokoomba, that it’ll be hard
to decide how best to spend your hard earned
cash. The range of music on offer also points to
the current healthy state of the roots music scene
in Wales. From homegrown talent such as Fernhill
to national treasure Dave Swarbrick, this month
promises to be a real treat for roots music fans.
Proceedings get off to a flying start with a series
of gigs under the heading Songchain/Clych Canu,
an event reinforcing the increasingly confident
Welsh scene that features 10 of the country’s finest
traditional singers and musicians (including Jamie
Smith, Dylan Fowler, Delyth Jenkins and Gwenan
Gibbard) in an exploration and celebration of the
roots and heritage of folk music in Wales. The
performance consists of a series of interlinked
solos and duets with the musicians telling the
stories of how they learned from each other and
exploring how music is passed from one person
to another. The tour takes in a number of venues
throughout Wales and begins at Cardiff’s St.
David’s Hall on Tue 1 Apr.
At the same venue a couple of weeks later, one of
contemporary British folk music’s most distinctive
voices can be heard when the extraordinary Lisa
Knapp and her band roll into town. The winner of
the 2014 BBC Radio 2 Folk Award for Best Original
Song for her composition Two Ravens, Li