Hey guys! 🙂
For today, I decided to share with you a song from Declan Galbraith’s 2006 album Thank You, which he released when he was 14. This is his cover of The Moody Blues’ 1960’s classic Nights in White Satin, written by Justin Hayward after a breakup. Unlike back when Declan was my dominant faza peep when I was a teenager, these days I find that the original speaks to me more, but I still have a lot of sentiment for Declan’s version of this song.
Hey people! 🙂
Today, let’s listen to some 90’s Welsh reggae! Welsh-language reggae may seem like quite an obscure thing to some, nevertheless, it’s definitely still a thing and a very interesting one in my opinion! I’ve already shared with you in the past some music by Geraint Jarman who put a lot of effort into introducing reggae to Welsh-language audience, and, more recently, I’ve also shared with you all several songs by the young artist Morgan Elwy who is also very enthusiastic about reggae. Today, it’s time for Bryn Fôn, whose solo music I’ve actually also already shared on here at the beginnings of my blog. Bryn is a very prominent figure on the Welsh-language music scene, was in particular during 80’s and 90’s. He was one of those many artists who contributed to making Welsh music, and thus Welsh language, more cool, and attract younger audience to it via contemporary music that would speak to them. One of Bryn Fôn’s projects was the band Sobin A’r Smaeliaid, which had a lot of fans in its time and I’m sure still does even though Sobin A’r Smaeliaid is no longer a thing. I myself like a lot of their songs too, even though I obviously didn’t know them when they were a thing as I wasn’t a thing then yet, lol, and even if I were it would be doubtful that I’d have any access to Welsh music at the time. They made mostly melodic rock songs with 80’s pop vibe to them. But there’s clearly some real need for reggae in Wales, because when they competed with this particular song in Cân i Gymru in 1990, they won, just like Morgan Elwy did last year with a reggae song as well. Perhaps that’s just what it takes to win Cân i Gymru – make a reggae song! 😀 I believe this was the first winner song in this contest with so much energy in it and generally such a distinctive feel to it and it’s not surprising that it must have made quite an impression. Bryn Fôn also won this competition again solo after a couple years, but that second time it was a pop song, not quite so ear-catching, at least in my opinion.
From what i gather, this song is a bit similar in lyrics to Geraint Jarman’s “Ethiopia Newydd” (New Ethiopia) because here we also have a comparison of Wales to Zion in Ethiopia and Wales is called “white Ethiiopia”.
And for today, I have a very sad, Welsh song about love, which is actually based on a true story. This version I am sharing with you is an instrumental harp rendition, from the very well-known on this blog Delyth Evans (currently Jenkins), but originally this song has lyrics. They tell the story of Ann Thomas and Will Hopcyn from Glamorganshire, who fell in love with each other, despite Ann belonged to a wealthy farming family, and Will was only a labourer. Ann’s mother really didn’t like it, so she decided that Ann would marry the sonn of a squire from the area. Will left the village of Llangynwyd where they lived. After months after Ann’s wedding, he had a dream that Ann’s husband died, but then when he came back to Ann it turned out that it was her who was dying, apparently due to a broken heart. She ended up dying in Will’s arms. Afterwards Will ended up marrying someone, but it was not a happy marriage. The song was collected by Maria Jane Williams.
Today, I want to share with you another version of a traditional song that I previously shared with you on here, this time a more acoustic one from the harpist Gwenan Gibbard. I think this is the first tune by her that I’m sharing where she’s also singing. For more background information about this song, you can click the link below, where I shared the
with one of my faza peeps – Gwilym Bowen Rhys – and Bethan Rhiannon as vocalists.
While obviously I really like both versions or otherwise I wouldn’t be sharing them here, I think I lean more towards the Pendevig one, as, in my opinion, it shows its spirit better, and also, well, fazas are fazas, Gwilym rules! But the big pluses of Gwenan Gibbard’s interpretation are that it’s more traditional, and, of course, features the harp.
Hi hi hi people, and very happy Easter to you all! 🙂
I’m late with today’s song of the day, as it’s Easter so I’ve been spending a lot of time with my family.
For today, I chose a really hilarious Welsh folk tune, performed by Pendevig. Pendevig is a project evolving around traditional music, but also heavily infused with influences from lots of other genres. It is made up of a group of young talented folk musicians who are already well-known on the Welsh-language music scene, most of them from the band Calan. However, I first became interested in it because one of my faza people – Gwilym Bowen Rhys – is also part of it. It is also he – together with Bethan Rhiannon, the vocalist of Calann – who sings the song I’m about to share with you.
Its actual, full title is “Lliw Gwyn Rhosyn Yr Haf” which has been apparently translated to English in a lot of ways, but the most literal translation that makes sense is White Colour Of A Summer Rose. It’s basically a conversation between a mann and a woman, where the man tries to chat her up by comparing her to a white summer rose, and some other things as well, and she wittily rejects his advances, only to finally admit that she’s actually just as madly in love with him as he is with her. When I first heard this song, I had no idea what it was about, but as my Welsh kept developing and I was able to understand enough of it to figure out the context, I was snorting out with laughter.
While preparing to share this song with you, I’ve found this fantastic and very thoroughly researched post about it by
Ffion Mair from The Foxglove Trio
which I would highly recommend to read if you’re interested to find out more. – According to Ffion’s post, this song was written by Richard Williams – a 19th-century blind poet born in north Wales, also known as Dic Dywyll, or Dark Dick in English. – I just love how creative it’s original title was – “A new song, which is a conversation between a young boy and a girl about getting married”. 😀
In Pendevig’s version, at the end of the song, there is also a beautiful poem written by Iestyn Tyne – one of the members of the group – which, as Pendevig explain, is about the loss of a lover and healing from it.
Here is the translation of Lliw Gwyn from Ffion’s post, including one verse which Pendevig actually don’t sing, (the third one), but which does appear also on Pendevig’s website, plus it’s funny and I like it.
“Good day to you my final star,
As white as a summer’s rose,
You are the fine girl that I love,
As white as a summer’s rose.”
“Well, shut your mouth you vain old man,
The nastiest ever on the face of the land!
I will hang myself before I come to court you,
In a word, that is the truth.”
“Your kiss, my darling one
As white as a summer’s rose,
Is like honeycomb every minute,
As white as a summer’s rose.”
“And so is your kiss,
The nastiest ever on the face of the land,
Second only to being wronged,
You old big-mouth, that is the truth.”
“Tell me when we can marry,
As white as a summer’s rose,
I know you belong to me,
As white as a summer’s rose.”
“When you see the cat eating the pudding,
The nastiest ever on the face of the land!
And Siôn Puw’s cow making the butter,
You old big-mouth, that is the truth.”“If you are going to refuse me,
As white as a summer’s rose,
Give me a kiss before we say farewell,
As white as a summer’s rose.”
“Well… I might as well tell you the truth as not,
O kindest ever on the face of the land,
You had two before, you can have another fifteen,
In a word, that is the truth.”
So we hadn’t had any questions of the day on here for quite a while, and I thought that, to get back into it, we could start with some rather generic ones, before moving on to something more complex. My question for you today is:
What’s your favourite colour?
My answer:
The short answer would be black! I think it’s genetic because my Mum loves black, black clothes, black interior design stuff, etc. I used to be a Goth, so I really do have an affinity with this collour. But I also like some other colours not much less so it’s hard to say just black without mentioning them. I also like white, grey, especially the Mishful kind of grey, and also blue and green, or green and blue together.
How about you? 🙂
Hey people. 🙂
Here is another Christmassy/wintry, nice and very colourful song from Enya. Enjoy. 🙂
My Inner MishMash 