Hey people! 🙂
For today’s main song of the day, I want to share a song by Mared, a talented young Welsh singer, a lot of whose music I’ve shared on here before, both solo as well as with the group Y Trŵbz. It’s from an EP called Something Worth Losing that she released earlier this year. The whole EP is in English and contains songs with very reflective lyrics. I’m sharing a live acoustic version of the song which I think is really good.
Hiya people! 🙂
Today I’d like to share with you a really cool song from Mared’s debut album called Y Drefn (The Order), certainly not the first song from that album on here, because I really like it as a whole. I’m pretty sure I heard this song for the first time on BBC Radio Cymru. As you may be able to guess from the title, it’s about home, breathing in the familiar, comforting air of the place where you live. . As a homebody and at the same time someone who had spent a lot of time away from home, I do agree there’s something very special about the air at home compared to everywhere else, and I suppose that’s totally regardless of where you live. As far as I know, Mared is based in London these days, but her home is a village called Llannefydd in Conwy, so, although I’ve never been to either of those places, I’m sure the difference between them in what the air feels like must be huge not only on an emotional level but purely objectively. Also, speaking of the air, I think awyr is the best of all the words for air in all my languages.
Hiya people! 🙂
Let’s catch up on our overdue Song of the Day posts which I hadn’t been able to post on the actual days when I planned to do it. The first one is from the already well-known on here Welsh singer and songwriter Mared Williams, who is both a solo singer as well as part of the folk-rock group Y Trŵbz and whom as you may know I really like because of how versatile and comfortable in different genres she is. This particular song has a decidedly jazz-y feel and I really like how powerful and clear her vocals sound here. As Mared says herself, this is a song about building bridges, between cultures, communities and the arts. It comes from her album Y Drefn (The Order) from two years ago.
Hey people! 🙂
For today, I have a beautiful song for you, the title track from Mared Williams’ last year’s album, which was deemed Welsh-language Album of the Year and from which I’ve already shared several songs because it’s really cool and very versatile musically. Mared is also someone whom I don’t think I really need to introduce on here, but for any newbies to my blog out there and people who are green in Welsh-language music, she is a young singer from Conwy, who is great at everything from jazz through pop to folk, and also rock, as part of the band Y Trŵbz. I really like this acoustic piece, and decided to share a live version of it with you.
Hey people! 🙂
Today, I’d like to share with you another song by the incredibly talented Mared Williams, also known simply as Mared. I have shared with you some of the music that she recorded together with the rock band Y Trŵbz, some folk music by her as well as more jazzy pieces, which I think showcases her huge genre versatility very well. For today, I thought we’d listen to her song with a bit of a soul vibe to it, so that you can see that she is very competent in this genre as well.
And for today, I’d like to share with you this really captivating song from Mared Williams, whose music I’ve already shared many times before on here, both as a soloist as well as the vocalist for Y Trŵbz. I really like her expressiveness in this song.
Hey people! 🙂
Today I’d like to share with you another song from the very talented and versatile Welsh singer Mared Williams, a fair few of whose songs I’ve already shared on here, either solo or with her as the vocalist for the band Y Trwbz. This song comes from her debut album Y Drefn (The Order) which I really love, because it shows so well how she seems to feel perfectly comfortable in all kinds of genres. While my favourite from that album is probably Gwydr Glas which I’ve already shared before, from less folky pieces, I think this one wins for me.
Hey people! 🙂
Today I decided that we’d listen to a really stunning piece from Mared Williams, also known just as Mared. This is definitely one of my most favourite of her songs. It deals with the topic of moving away from where you grew up and used to live, but coming back there and trying to keep in touch with friends. Mared is originally from Llannefydd in north Wales, although as far as I know she now lives at least some of the time in London. She is also the vocalist in the Welsh rock group Y Trwbz, as has been one of my faza people – Jacob Elwy. – She’s also in a relationship with Morgan Elwy, Jacob’s brother, with whom she sometimes collaborates also outside of Y Trwbz. This song was produced by the Drwm recording studio, and people like Osian Huw Williams from the well-known on the Welsh-language scene band Candelas, or Branwen Haf Williams from Cowbois Rhos Botwnnog were involved in the recording.
Hey people! 🙂
Today I chose to share with you two versions of a traditional folk song in Welsh. As is often the case with me, I just couldn’t decide on one because I think they’re both great each in its own way and also that it will be cool to have more than just one version so that you can compare them for yourselves and see which one speaks to you more.
The first one comes from Gwilym Bowen Rhys and it’s the final track from his debut albumm “O Groth Y Ddaear” (From The Earth’s Womb). As is often the case with folk songs like this, they often have a lot of tunes associated with them and their lyrics can vary. Gwilym decided to go with a less commonly known melody, the last recording of which, before his, was from the 1950’s. I really like the minimalism of his interpretation.
The second version – by Mared Williams – whom you may recall as a vocalist in the Welsh rock band Y Trwbz whose music I’ve shared on here a few times (both Gwilym and Mared are quite mind-blowingly versatile musicians) also appeared on her debut album, however in the video I’m sharing with you she sings it from her home. It has the more common melody and is a bit longer, but I got the English translation of the lyrics for you from
so it doesn’t include the additional verses in Mared’s version, which is a pity because from what I understand from them, that’s where the things get more interesting and captivating, but I don’t feel fully capable of translating them myself just by ear without at least looking at the lyrics and I can’t find these verses anywhere. It has a bit of a jazzy feel as a lot of her solo music does which makes it really interesting.
I think it’s cool that while this is such a very traditional song, I guess both these versions could be quite easily digestible to people who aren’t really into folk, or that’s how it seems to me, although I’m probably not very objective since I’m very much into Celtic folk so it’s just me trying to put myself in other people’s shoes really. 😀
Just as a fun trivia sort of thing, the “glas” in the title doesn’t mean glas, it means blue. 😀 I guess it could be confusing for people since the title means The Blue Glass. Actually, the Welsh word glas can also mean other colours, I’ve come across this word also being used for green, grey and silver. The blue glass in the title, from what I read, most likely refers to the window panes which used to be bluish green.
Here is the English translation:
If my love comes here tonight to knock on the blue glass
Give him a seemly answer, don’t answer him crossly,
That the girl isn’t home and her good will isn’t in the house,
A young lad from the next parish has taken her away. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=plRg52KSoIM
Hey people! 🙂
Time for yet another Cân I Gymru song, this time from 2019. I honestly found this one of my most favourites in that edition, I think it’s so nice and cool.
Both Jacob Elwy and Mared Williams are from north-eastern Wales. Mared has already been known to me as a great singer, and had been a part of Côr Glanaethwy, a great choir at Ysgol Glanaethwy, a Welsh drama school in Bangor. Right now she has her own YouTube channel and I’m a big fan of hers. I didn’t translate the title of this song this time around in the post title as I’m not exactly sure myself what it means, but my guess is something like We Shall See How It Goes (?)… I may be wrong though.
My Inner MishMash 