Byth Adra

neu / or ~ Pedwar Yn Y Bar = Four in the Bar
SAIN Recordiau / SAIN Records 908N

This is good kick, but it didn’t make Christmas #1 despite the seasonal content, opening with “Nos Calan” ~ “‘Tis the season to be jolly!”. The lads posing on the cover do their damnedest to have ’attitude‘, but the ’early‘ proof of consistent bar habitation shows. 😉 Their music is fun and heart lifting and relatively free of the ’schooled‘ and ’classical‘ lace-sleeved pretense of much ’Welsh‘ music. A mix of ’trad’ (a claim I generally distrust) and their own inspirations this is sweet and full of Christmas spirit and joy… I mean ~ “12th Street Rag”? ~ you know their nuts…

Huw Roberts: fiddle, accordion
Iwan Roberts: mandolin, mandola
Tudur Huws Jones: bouzouki, banjo, bodhrán, whistle & vocals
Tudur Morgan: guitar, keyboard, bass, percussion & vocals

Alright, so there’s a little schooled laced-sleeve in it, I confess… It’s hard to shake what has become so entrenched… But it is still ‘sweet’ and I’m glad to have it playing in the background right now, even if it is low in the scrape, growl and dirt I’m particularly fond of, but hey, it’s in the a.m…and I’m getting all Christmasy all of a sudden…and teary eyed…

Huw Roberts, Iwan Roberts and Tudor Huws Jones were also part of the Welsh group “Cilmeri”, also on SAIN, and again good fun….lot o hwyl!

Oops, I’d forgotten the recording date ~ 1984

The above recording, “4 Yn Y Bar: Byth Adra”, was placed on site because Dafydd Meredith had contributed a couple of tunes from this recording, compositions by the artists. There are as yet none of the “Cilmeri” tunes on site yet, so I won’t be putting on their recordings, but here are two for those interested, and yes, there is more lace in these, but they are one’s I value anyway, after all, I did get caught up in early music, Dave Munrow and all that hullabaloo. Hell, I’ve even dressed up in the kit and played for and stepped through the dances, mincingly. ‘Gathering Peascods’ if you please? Yuck!, just thinking of it is making my brow furrow and my balls ache. Here are the listings, 12 tracks each:

“Cilmeri” ~ SAIN768N, 1980

“CIlmeri…Henffych Well” ~ SAIN836N, 1982

I was wrong, there were some tunes on site from one of the Cilmeri recordings, my favourite of the two:

https://thesession.org/recordings/1872

I really like 4 yn y Bar and Byth Adra…I don’t know what you mean about ‘lace’..! I think they sound earthy and warm. Nos Calan is known as a Welsh tune. Thanks for posting the above. I wish the tapes were reissued as cd’s.