More Lleuwen, please!

The Welsh folk singer is on the march, fighting the good fight. She deserves a greater spotlight.

Great to see Lleuwen Steffan fighting the good fight in the Guardian recently. Lleuwen is a campaigner for traditional welsh music like no other. If there is still a perception of folkies as stuffy, hippy, mousy… you know the sort of thing… then she is none of those things. She is also not the type to drift knowingly into the lukewarm waters of the mainstream Radio2 sound, like so many folk musicians have done and continue to do. Lleuwen is a fierce entity who comes down from the wet wild mountains with a thousand years of songs between her teeth.

I interviewed her recently on the Radio Wales Arts Show about her tour of Welsh churches and chapels singing hymns that have been excised from “the cannon” for some reason or another - mostly due to some long forgotten prejudices not all that specific to the region. She had some car trouble heading to that night’s gig, and we did the interview with her at the roadside somewhere in Carmarthenshire, I think it was, cars speeding past in the background, my producer’s hair going grey in real time at the prospect of editing it into something fit for radio. But Lleuwen has a winning energy that drowns out anything as modern and fleeting as a car engine. In the Guardian interview, I would assume (not not bet my house on) carried out in more relaxed circumstances, she goes into more detail about the process and origins of these newly unearthed hymns.

Many of them are about addiction, mental illness, the dark side of the psyche. You know, you have one that talks of drunkenness and alcoholism that is transformed into drinking the wine from God’s cellar.

And you have very detailed, dark stuff about knocking on, on hell’s door. And the guy with the key not answering the door, you know, not letting them in. And then they see all these other people going through the door. I find that it’s just so, so poignant and so present.

Many of my peers thought, why is she doing hymns? Right. It’s not exactly cool but they have changed my life in music. They wouldn’t leave me alone. I had the responsibility to share them. I felt I had a real connection with them. They really are a treasure.

Also worth noting something that I’ve been very vocal about in BRG recently.

This work would not have been possible without the help and expertise of people who are working in the archives [of the National Museum and National Library]

In the likelihood I can’t match up my travels with Lleuwen’s tour I remain hopeful she’ll commit the material to tape someday (yes, I still say tape sometimes).

But if, like me, you need something to tide you over, can I recommend my favourite of Lleuwen’s recorded albums, Gwn Glân Beibl Budr from 2018 (long time ago now). A few years ago when Wales Arts Review published our list of the 100 greatest Welsh albums of all time, I fought hard for it, and it came in at a very respectable 52. Listening back to it this week, I do wish it had placed higher. It would be much higher in my personal list. It remains a vibrant, vivacious showcase for her skills as a musician, singer, arranger, performer, and channeller of an ancient voice. She is simply one of my favourite musical artists working today, and she’s out there on her own.

Gary Raymond is a novelist, author, playwright, critic, and broadcaster. In 2012, he co-founded Wales Arts Review, was its editor for ten years. His latest book, Abandon All Hope: A Personal Journey Through the History of Welsh Literature is available for pre-order and is out in May 2024 with Calon Books.