Salut mes amis,
That's not me trying to start off sounding clever, I have this week been recording a version of 'make a little room' en français!! So fingers crossed I won't have made too many grammatical faux-pas and my year in Toulouse won't have been a complete waste of time. I'll be sure to let you know when it's ready to be released for public scrutiny - so long as none of you are French scholars...
Since my last post I've been up and down the length and breadth of Britain gigging with various artists. It started at the end of April when I had the honour of opening up for none other than Cerys Matthews, Ms "Road Rage" herself. Apparently she'd received a copy of 'The Arsonist' and had heard my version of said song and hadn't found it to be all that bad which was a relief to hear. The setting for the gig was the grand PJ Hall at the Univeristy of Bangor and at the end of her set Cerys kindly invited me up for her encore to do 'Road Rage' with her which was a very kind gesture on her part and one I won't forget in a hurry - Diolch yn fawr Cerys!
I then followed that up with a couple of dates with the former Focus guitarist Jan Akkerman at Cox's Yard in Stratford and The Brindley in Runcorn. Two lovely venues that I hope I'll get the chance to play again in the not too distant future. A few weeks later I was back on the road to do a few dates with the lovely 'Webb Sisters' who some of you may have heard of as the singers who accompanied Mr Leonard Cohen no less on his mammoth tour spanning over 3 years! It was easy to hear why he chose them - their delicious close harmonies were incredibly easy on the ear and their version of Cohen's 'If it be your will' is definitely worth hearing live!
In amongst these support slots I have also been playing live with my Band back home in Wales to help promote our new album 'Ar Gof a Chadw' (Translation: To Keep in Memory) (available via Amazon: http://amzn.to/kqs6gG or via Sadwrn.com)
We finished the month off by heading up to Prestatyn in North Wales, not far from where myself and Arwel, the guitarist and fellow songwriter in the band, grew up. The premise of the album is the feeling of belonging and the nostalgia one feels when reminiscing and looking through old photographs. So to complement this the film crew set up a Camper Van upon which our old family photos would be projected during our performance. A nice touch and one I'm very much looking forward to seeing on screen. If you're interested the show 'Nodyn' will be airing sometime during the summer on S4C - http://bit.ly/jUoDnj
As I mentioned earlier I have been busy recording a French version of 'Make a Little Room' - the original version is finally being released as a single on the 18th July and is starting to gather plays across various stations in the UK including BBC Radio 2 and Q Radio. If you haven't yet seen the video you can watch it either on YouTube or on my website: http://www.allewismusic.com
This month has already seen me rack up two more support slots in Bristol and Cardiff supporting Anaïs Mitchell and Kitty, Daisy and Lewis respectively. Two completely different acts but equally mesmerising in their own ways - check out Anaïs's latest offering 'Hadestown' featuring contributions by a plethora of great acts such as Ani Di Franco and Bon Iver (Justin Vernon).
Thanks for reading and see you soon (I'm off to Welford-on-avon for tonight's show)
Al x
