Arfer Dod Âr Blode (Used to bring Flowers)
This collection of songs is rooted in two valleys, Cwm Cynon and Cwm Nedd, and in one town and one village, the town of Aberdâr, in the Cynon Valley, where I was born, and where I spent the first 18 years of my life, and the village of Cwmnedd, the home of my mother and her family.
When I started singing back in the fog of the 70s of the last century/millennium, my songs were naturally about the area and the people around me, (Restore the Valleys, Cwm Cynon…) but as I moved away to college and to the world of work living in various parts of the country; and taking an interest in global issues, the subjects of my songs expanded to include different places and subjects. From “Strydoedd Bangor” in the rain, to the poor miners of South America in “Blue”, from the environmental disaster in “Un Byd” and the 9/11 disaster in “Dal i Grio” to the joy of releasing one of the giants of the century in “Mandela”.
And then with the last cd “Looking for America” I followed a Welsh speaking Welshman, one William B James from Pembrokeshire over to America, where he died with George Armstrong Custer in the battle of Little Big Horn, or “Custers Last Stand” as it is known, although it is more of a breakdown than of Last Stand. Anyway, if William B James went west, members of my father’s family (who came from the same area as William B) went east, and to Cwm Cynon, to work in the coal. My mother’s family came down from Breconshire to Cwm Nedd, again to work in the coal, and that over two hundred years ago.
So, I decided to tell the story of the characters in my family. But this is not a “history”, but a series of short stories on a song. I almost called the cd “The habit of bringing Flowers and other Stories”, but there wasn’t enough space on the cover! and the words would have detracted too much from the exceptional work of the artist who designed the cover, Teresa Jenellen. But that’s what is here, eight narrative songs, containing the real history of various characters in my family, including myself, stories that are common to many families in the valleys in the South, and stories that I felt they were worth recording in a song.
