One of the leading Welsh traditional folk groups are to appear at the Peel Centenary Centre next month.
The folk trio, Alaw, who feature a familiar face in accordion player and Peel resident Jamie Smith, are to appear in the west on Saturday, March 3.
The three piece are enjoying a successful start to 2018, following the release of their highly-acclaimed second album ’Dead Man’s Dance’, which has won them, not only new fans and praise in the pages of the music press, but also a nomination in the BBC Folk awards in the best traditional song category for their version of the classic Welsh tune ’Lisa Lâ*’ , which translates as ’Pure Lisa’.
The Peel concert will be the first date for the trio since they heard the news, and they are looking forward to finally being able to celebrate on stage.
’We’ve never been nominated before, so it is great,’ said Jamie.
’Especially as we have been nominated with our version of a traditional Welsh song.
’I’m not sure if there has ever been a great amount of Welsh representation in the Folk awards. There seems to be more ’Celtic’ representation this year than there was a few years ago.’
Jamie and Alaw join the three Manx musicians, Mera Royle, Adam Rhodes and Tom Callister, through the band Imar, who have been nominated for the BBC folk awards this year, meaning that there is a lot of local interest in the prestigious awards this year.
’It is nice to get the nomination, and even if you don’t get to win the category, you can still call yourself a nominee,’ he said.
Alaw were formed in 2013 by fiddle player Oli Wilson-Dickson and guitarist Dylan Fowler. Oli is no stranger to the island, having performed here as part of Jamie’s other group Mabon and as part of the music and story telling troupe The Devil’s Violin, who appeared at the 2017 Manx Lit fest.
Alaw’s first album, ’Melody’, was released in 2013, and Jamie said they have taken their time since to create what they think is their perfect style.
’We started about four or five years ago, but we took it very slow, and it was something we were fitting in with other bands,’ said Jamie.
’It has gathered momentum. We did do an album in the first couple of years, but we were still finding our feet and finding our sound, and what we did well.
’The first album tries a lot of different things on it, and we have learned through gigging in the meantime what our strengths are.
’With the second album we made the conscious decision to narrow things down a little stylistically and to focus on what we think gives us our best overall sound, which has also really helped our live sound too,’ he said.
’I have been working with Oli, the fiddle player, for many years now with Mabon, over ten years now. Alaw is really his trio, which he started with Dylan, the guitarist, who is also his step-dad.
Dylan is a highly respected guitarist, not just in the Welsh folk scene, but across the whole acoustic guitar scene. He tours regularly across the world.
’We just wanted to do a new project of Welsh music that was treating it in our own way.
’It can be seen to be a bit twee and overly-jolly perhaps, but we’ve put a bit more of a thoughtful edge on them, and made them a bit moodier. There are loads of these great songs and tunes that are quite dark and unusual, and a bit different to what the other Celtic countries have to offer. So we wanted to focus on them and bring them out.
’But we still like to doing things with lots of contrasts,’ he continued.
’One minute we like to play lovely beautiful slow songs and tunes, and the next thing we have a really solid driving tune too.
’Over the course of an evening we have lots of different flavours, whether they are from Wales or our own original music.’
Jamie said that Alaw plan to build on the early success of this year, and are aiming to make appearances at some high profile festivals and events throughout 2018.
They are already booked to appear at WOMEX, the World Music Expo, held in Gran Canaria later this year, and they are booked to perform at many of the UK’s top folk festivals.
’It is also the first time Alaw have been over here to play,’ said Jamie. ’With March 1 being St David’s day, it is nice to play as close to that here. I’m hoping that it will be a good night.’
Tickets for the Peel Centenary gig are £14, with £8 for under 18s, and are available online from etickets.im/cc
The concert starts at 8pm, with doors open at 7.30pm.
by Mike Wade
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