This week we bathe in the heartening radiance of a live set from The Gentle Good, aka Gareth Bonello. I wrote - at length, with a certain amount of ear drool spilling on to my keyboard - about Gareth's excellent live set t'other night elsewhere in these blogs, well this is 13 minutes of that set. Lucky for us, truly.

Elsewhere Huw Williams talks about Datblygu, Ben Hayes inspires us with some Essential Logic (a programme first!) and Lara Catrin tackles the not inconsiderable task of translating a couple of verses from Genod Droog for us.

Then - of course - there is the music. New tracks from The School, Race Horses and Future of the Left - and debut plays for The Secret Agent 5, Mike Fantastic, Amane, Best Days, Ronnie Parry, Panabrite, Exempt, Ric L. Washer and Bo Walton.

Please mail new releases/demos & gig info to themysterytour@gmail.com, or post baubles to:

BBC Wales
Canolfan y Diwydiannau Creadigol/The Centre for the Creative Industries
Prifysgol Glyndŵr/Glyndŵr University
Wrecsam/Wrexham
LL11 2AW

Here are the show stats for the year so far. Not that I'm obsessed or at all bothered by statistics. Well, maybe 47.946% of the time I am - at a rough estimate.

628 unique songs/734 Total. 405 Artists in 20 shows since 1st, Jan '12 (~songs per show:37, unique artists per show:20) Welsh:94%

Top 5 played since 1st, Jan '12: Future Of The Left(18), Irma Vep(17), Y Niwl(16), Cate Le Bon(16), Georgia Ruth(13).

SECRET AGENT FIVE, THE - 'The Twonky'
Ruthin

SCHOOL, THE - 'You Make Me Hear Music ( Inside My Head )'
Cardiff

RACE HORSES - 'Mates'
Aberystwyth

Y NIWL - 'Undegnaw ( Sesiwn Gwobrau Roc A Phop 2012 )'
Gwynedd

GEORGIA RUTH - 'Etrai ( Sesiwn Gwobrau Roc A Phop 2012 )'
Aberystwyth/Cardiff

MOWBIRD - 'Thank You, You Are Revolting'
Wrexham

HUW WILLIAMS - 'Spoken Contribution'
Swansea

DATBLYGU - 'Y Teimlad'
Cardigan

JOY FORMIDABLE, THE - 'Cradle'
Mold

MIKE FANTASTIC - 'Hands Up'
Unknown.

AMANé - 'Sunday'
Aberystwyth

RICHARD JAMES - 'Down To My Heart'
Croes - Y - Ceiliog

BEST DAYS - 'Wasted'
Cardiff

FUTURE OF THE LEFT - 'Beneath The Waves An Ocean'
Cardiff

GENTLE GOOD, THE - 'Llosgi Pontydd [ Live At Telford's Warehouse ]'
Cardiff

GENTLE GOOD, THE - 'Pamela [ Live At Telford's Warehouse ]'
Cardiff

GENTLE GOOD, THE - 'Siwrne'r Wylan Fry [ Live At Telford's Warehouse ]'
Cardiff

HEAVY PETTING ZOO - 'Deathproof'
Swansea

RONNIE PARRY - 'Trust And Money'
Ruthin

JEWELLERS - 'Lakes'
Newport

PANABRITE - 'Equinox'
Seattle/Welsh Label

BWGAN, Y - 'Gwaelod Y Byd'
Porthmadog/Caernarfon

JOANNA GRUESOME - 'Sweater'
Cardiff

EXEMPT - 'Blown Away'
Cardiff

RIC L. WASHER - 'Clock Watching'
Cwmbran

EUROS CHILDS - 'Spin That Girl Around [ Single Version ]'
Pembrokeshire

CATE LE BON - 'Through The Mill'
Penboyr

BAREFOOT DANCE OF THE SEA - 'One, Two, Three'
Cardiff

STEFF ADAMS - 'Hectic Day'
Cardiff

MOWBIRD - 'We Sell Maternity Simwear'
Wrexham

BO WALTON - 'I Like It Like That'
?

FAMILY OF THE YEAR - 'Stairs [ E P Version ]'
Wrexham/L.a.

THREE PAIRS OF SHOES - 'From Wics To Burs'
Cardiff

JAGUAR MIN - 'Hormarma'
Newport

YR ODS - 'Dwi'm Yn Angel ( Sesiwn Gwobrau Roc A Phop 2012 )'
Gwynedd

SŵNAMI - 'Cyfle ( Sesiwn Gwobrau Roc A Phop 2012 )'
Dolgellau

LARA CATRIN - 'Spoken Contribution'
Bangor/Cardiff

GENOD DROOG - 'Gwn Tatws'
Porthmadog

BEN HAYES - 'Spoken Contribution'
Ruthin

ESSENTIAL LOGIC - 'Aerosol Burns'
?

SECRET AGENT FIVE, THE - 'The Twonky'
Ruthin

As subtly wondrous as his guitar playing is, it's always subservient to the song, and - in particular - his voice. Gareth has a voice like a broken heart. It's stained with resignation, eroded by cruel winds, challenging gravity like those unfathomable rock edifices in Monument Valley. It's one of the great Welsh voices. But it's a storyteller's voice rather than a singer's voice. And all the better for that.

The obvious, internationally-recognised reference points for his music - Nick Drake, John Martyn, Bonnie 'Prince' Billy - are somewhat misleading because this is a music steeped in Wales. It's mysterious with early morning mist obscuring the valley's sides; burnished by the sunrise trying to break through.

There is a timeless gravitas that comes from Gareth's knowledge of the history of song in Wales. There are words and musical phrases that resonate, regardless of their age. There are no awkward concessions to contemporaneity, no baubles of modernism. Gareth is like a dry stone waller, or a traditional carpenter, there is an elemental, timeless truth to his work that makes it especially resonant and valuable in our age of the temporary, shallow and ephemeral.

His opening song Aubade is about as close as I've ever heard to my soul's harmonic frequency. He plays it, and it vibrates tears, yearning and regret out of every pore. Oh Lord, I love great music - simultaneously hurting and healing in the same cadence.

Richard James is tonight's headliner. "I'm going to be playing some songs from an album that was released two weeks ago, and some other songs that haven't been released yet, with Gareth Bonello and Andy Fung. A lot of these songs are quite, erm, well - I dunno - without being too articulate about it, erm, miserable... so, you're in for a treat! It's about the misery of the heart. I think they're joyous as well..."

And so begins one of the most magical hours of music I have ever witnessed. The sound is so quiet and delicate that the audience bend, as one, closer to the stage, like sunflower heads craning towards a source of light and life.

Richard James mightn't feel articulate speaking about his music but there are few as musically articulate. And - like many of the greatest artists - he works his spells within a deliberately self-limited range. Gorky's - his former band - were a supernova of creative thought, more ideas in single songs than some artists manage in entire lifespans. There were bells, whistles, school orchestras, xylophones, sword mangels and recorders: an entire rainbow of wildly enthusiastic sounds.

Wonder and possibility radiated from every note. It's somewhat amazing to consider that we had them and Super Furry Animals at the same time. A Facebook friend opined recently that music's golden age ended in 1979, and that nothing of equable worth had happened since; well, she can't have been listening to Gorky's or the Furries from 1996 until the middle of the last decade, because that's as high a watermark as any.

Hmmm. Gorky's is Richard's past. He's been making superlative solo albums for the best part of a decade. But his evolution, from exuberant school kid set free in a sweet shop of the imagination, to an artist of great capability and restraint, who wields less with an emotive power that is the match of the more, more, more thrills of his youth, is a fascinating one.

So we have two guitars, three voices, one bongo (or some such, sorry Andy!), an occasional harmonica, and sometime unique use of a pair of sunglasses/beerglass, in conjunction with the unnamed drum. But within that apparently limited range, we get a panoramic tour of the infinite vistas of the heart.

I've rarely seen an audience as attentive as this most excellent of audiences is. I swear, on occasion the music is as hushed as whispers on a breeze, but no one makes a sound. No one dares breathe. The sound of my camera's shutter is louder than the drum. Drawing us all more and more into the music's irresistible undertow.

When Richard sings his "most miserable" song (which may be called Down To My Heart, but there are fleas with a better memory for names than me) I think we could all - to a man and a woman - die in that eternal moment - melancholic and content. I think this music, this sensation, is priceless because it reminds us all that we're not alone. The high fallutin' call it pathos, or bathos - whatever the correct terminology is - it's a musketeer of hope and empathy. The guitars are subtle shimmers, the unnamed drum a heartbeat, the voice an irresistible glow. Music this nakedly human is rare. If you want a signpost, think Neil Young's Harvest.

Then we're in the midst of a 10 minute raga, sucking our souls to metaphysical places of hallucinatory wonder. Shamanistic and about as good as human artistic endeavour can get. Please don't make the mistake of thinking I'm exaggerating. This was the Sistine Chapel in acoustic guitar; Monet in minor thirds; a series of plaintive, folk sonnets that Shakespeare would have stood to applaud.

My gauchely-lobbed hyperbole is in inverse proportion to how subtly exquisite this was. All of it. Thank you Richard. Thank you Gareth. Thank you Andy. Thank you ears. Thank you heart.

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This week's show is mostly about Cate Le Bon's otherworldly and exquisite new album, Cyrk (released on 30 April on Ovni). Cate's our special interview guest, shedding some shimmering light on the album's mysteries and melodies.

It's a great album that single-handedly puts paid to the cliché that there isn't anything original out there.

Elsewhere, Hue Pooh (reverting to his stage name now that The Pooh Sticks are, again, one of the finest live bands in the country) reminds us of the surf punk, easy genius of The Barracudas.

Lara Catrin translates something ace, young and new from Camarthen's Blaidd.

Ben Hayes comes into the studio with some Georgio. Thankfully not the poison nerve gas perfume so effective at suffocating entire towns during the 80s, but a piece of wax from Georgio Moroder.

And there are glittering piles of new Welsh music scattered throughout, including début plays for Draw Me Stories, Quiet Marauder, P - Theory, Island and Gregory S Davies.

Send demos/new releases and correspondence to: themysterytour@gmail.com. High quality mp3s or download links preferred, please.

Race Horses live on next week's show...

Have an excellent, music-filled week, many thanks/diolch o galon.

LLIO RHYDDERCH A TOMOS WILLIAMS - 'Marwnad Yr Ehedydd'
Ynys Môn

CATE LE BON - 'Ploughing Out Part 1'
Penboyr

CATE LE BON - 'Ploughing Out Part 2'
Penboyr

RACE HORSES - 'Hanes Cymru [ Live C2 Session Version ]'
Aberystwyth

SEX HANDS - 'Gay Marriage'
Dwygfylchi / Llanfairfechan / Conwy

SCHOOL, THE - 'That Boy Is Mine'
Cardiff

CATE LE BON - '2012 Interview Pt.1'
Penboyr

CATE LE BON - 'Falcon Eyed'
Penboyr

CATE LE BON - '2012 Interview Pt.2'
Penboyr

CATE LE BON - 'Cyrk'
Penboyr

RICHARD JAMES - 'Magical Day'
Croes - Y - Ceiliog

DRAW ME STORIES - 'Birdsong'
Cardiff

TRWBADOR - 'Red Handkerchief [ Cornershop Remix ]'
Camarthen / Cardiff

TELEFAIR - 'The Captain's Daughter'
Rhyl

SAMOANS - 'Secret Sixth'
Cardiff / Aberdare

STRAIGHT LINES - 'Empty Chest'
Pontypridd / Pyle

HUW WILLIAMS - 'Spoken Contribution'
Swansea

BARRACUDAS, THE - 'Summer Fun'
London / Cardiff Distribution

CHRIS T - T - 'Market Square'
Winchester / Brighton

SHE MAKES WAR - 'Delete'
London

QUIET MARAUDER - 'I Want A Moustache, Dammit'
Cardiff

PULCO - 'Small Thoughts [ With Ratatosk ]'
Bangor

EVERYMEN - 'Limestone'
Swansea

P - THEORY - 'We Got The Midas Touch'
Mold

TACSI - 'No Revolution'
Bangor

CAETANO VELOSO - 'Alfomega'
Brazil

CATE LE BON - '2012 Interview Pt.3'
Penboyr

CATE LE BON - 'Julia'
Penboyr

CATE LE BON - '2012 Interview Pt.4'
Penboyr

CATE LE BON - 'Greta'
Penboyr

FIONA A GORWEL OWEN - 'Aderyn Du'
Llanfaelog, Ynys Môn

SADIES, THE - 'Loved On Look'
Canada

BRIGHT YOUNG PEOPLE, THE - 'Devil's Pinch'
Rhyl

PAPER AEROPLANES - 'Multiple Love'
Milford Haven

LARA CATRIN - 'Spoken Contribution'
Bangor / Cardiff

BLAIDD - 'Rhedeg Gyda Blaidd [ Sesiwn Huw Stephens C2 ]'
Camarthen

ISLAND - 'Wyndchymes'
Pontlliw

LIFTING GEAR ENGINEER - 'De - Flank'
Swansea

VOLENTé - 'Hollow'
Cardiff

BAREFOOT DANCE OF THE SEA - 'The Murder Song'
Cardiff

JULIE MURPHY - 'Kathleen'
Pembrokeshire

BEN HAYES - 'Spoken Contribution'
Ruthin

GIORGIO - 'Looky Looky'
?

GREGORY S. DAVIES - 'Power Cut'
Unknown.

It has been a busy old week. First off, I DJd a very good friend's wedding. It wasn't your typical wedding DJ set, featuring - as it did - wild handbrake turns from Steps to Mclusky, and the image of the groom up on everyone's shoulders, bellowing along to The Flaming Lips' Do You Realize??, will live with me for a very long time indeed.

Those raucous celebrations ran into the start of Focus Wales, a city-based festival held in Wrexham. The festival is in its second year. Ninety-ish artists played over four nights. In short, it was ACE, despite my only being able to attend for the first two nights. A review on the BBC Wales Music pages is imminent - for the time being, you can enjoy We Are Animal live from Central Station during this week's show. It's rhythmic, primal and blinking great.

Away from the festival stages and bars, Alan Holmes waxes Punjabi about Charged; Lara Catrin translates Gildas, and Ben 'Soundhog' Hayes treats us to a bit of Killer Watts.

In between the talkie bits, oodles of ace music. Including début plays for The Bagel Project, The Black Music Workshop, Jack Dixon, Ocean City, The Knuckledowns, Enbe, Gavner P, Ben Lloyd, Richard Readey, Silver/Back/Club, Tea That Burns and the Joe Webb Trio.

Shows stats for 2012 currently stand like this: 528 unique songs out of 621 Total. 351 Artists in 17 shows since 1 January 2012 (songs per show: 37; unique artists per show: 21) Welsh: 94%.

Not that I'm obsessed with statistics. Oh, no.

How to submit music:

1. Be good
2. Send your (single) best track to me. An mp3/download link to themysterytour@gmail.com
3. I get a couple of hundred submissions every week. I'll get back to you if I play you, or if I think I can offer constructive advice.

Diolch yn fawr iawn, Adam Walton

CIAN CIARAN - 'You And Me [ Radio Edit ]'
Bangor

FAMILY OF THE YEAR - 'Stairs [ E P Version ]'
Wrexham / L.a.

SCHOOL, THE - 'Never Thought I'd See The Day'
Cardiff

BASTIONS - 'The Great Unwashed'
Anglesey

PERFUME GENIUS - 'Take Me Home'
Seattle / Welsh Management

RICHARD JAMES - 'All Gone'
Croes - Y - Ceiliog

BAGEL PROJECT, THE - 'Trippin''
Lampeter

BLACK MUSIC WORKSHOP, THE - 'Take Control'
Cardiff

HOI! - 'Backhanded Compliment'
Swansea

DDARQUE - 'Gone'
Unknown.

FUTURE OF THE LEFT - 'Tell The Truth About The Brace Position'
Cardiff

GRUFF RHYS - 'Gold Medal Winner'
Bethesda

CATE LE BON - 'Time Can Change Your Mind'
Penboyr

ALAN HOLMES - 'Spoken Contribution'
Bangor

CHARGED - 'Jaanwur'
?

JOY FORMIDABLE, THE - 'The Last Drop ( 2008 Session Version )'
Mold

BAREFOOT DANCE OF THE SEA - 'Sea Song'
Cardiff

TOYPOP - 'Persistent Secrecy'
Newport

EUROS CHILDS - 'Spin That Girl Around [ Single Version ]'
Pembrokeshire

JACK DIXON - 'Lose Myself [ Dauwd Remix ]'
London / Bangor Remixer

CLOCKWORK RADIO - 'Feel It Up'
Caernarfon / Manchester

BEN PARKER - 'It Goes Without Saying'
Anglesey

HEAVY PETTING ZOO - 'Night Train'
Swansea

OCEAN CITY - 'Arowana ( Featuring Laura Whiteside )'
Flintshire

KNUCKLEDOWNS, THE - 'Bill Hicks Saga'
Swansea

ENBE - 'Lean'
Cardiff

GAVNER P - 'Sacrifice'
Conwy

HALFLIGHT (2011+) - 'Echo'
Welshpool

WE ARE ANIMAL - 'Black Magic ( Live At Focus Wales 2012 )'
Bethel / Caernarfon

WE ARE ANIMAL - 'Luminous Lights ( Live At Focus Wales 2012 )'
Bethel / Caernarfon

WE ARE ANIMAL - '19:19 ( Live At Focus Wales 2012 )'
Bethel / Caernarfon

WE ARE ANIMAL - 'Work ( Live At Focus Wales 2012 )'
Bethel / Caernarfon

MONKY - 'Make 'em Clap'
Cardiff

SUBSTANCE - 'Come With Us'
Oswestry / Wrexham

BEN LLOYD - 'Pharma'
Swansea

LARA CATRIN - 'Spoken Contribution'
Bangor / Cardiff

GILDAS - 'Hyfryd Lun'
Cardiff

RICHARD READEY - 'Walk Alone'
Mold

SILVER / BACK / CLUB - 'Pale Face'
Connah's Quay

TEA THAT BURNS - '600 Light Years'
Cwmbrân / New York

BEN HAYES - 'Spoken Contribution'
Ruthin

KILLER WATTS - 'Hoots Mon'
?

JOE WEBB TRIO - 'Night Song / Fall In Love'
Swansea

Send demos/new releases etc. as a download link/mp3 to themysterytour@gmail.com

Many thanks/diolch o galon. Here's the playlist.

SOUNDHOG - 'Whole Lotta Helter Skelter [Led Zeppelin Vs. The Beatles]'
Ruthin

CIAN CIARAN - 'Till I Die'
Bangor

EVERYMEN - 'Through The Window'
Swansea

K T R L - 'Aufstieg'
Cardiff

KNICKERS - 'My Baby's Just A Baby (EP Version)'
London / Cardiff Distribution

CATE LE BON - 'Fold The Cloth'
Penboyr

ALAN HOLMES - 'Spoken Contribution'
Bangor

SERAIN - 'Geneth Heb Enw'
?

IRMA VEP - 'Bare In Mind [Album Version]'
Llanfairfechan

J - SOUND! - 'Tell It Like It Is'
Cardiff

DAMN BLAGS, THE - 'Nol I'r Dechrau'
Cardiff / Wrexham

SEX HANDS - 'Gay Marriage'
Dwygfylchi / Llanfairfechan / Conwy

JOY FORMIDABLE, THE - 'The Greatest Light Is The Greatest Shade'
Mold

MCLUSKY - 'No New Wave No Fun'
Cardiff

ANDREW FALKOUS - 'Interview About Mclusky Do Dallas'
Cardiff

MCLUSKY - 'To Hell With Good Intentions'
Cardiff

FUTURE OF THE LEFT - 'Sheena Is A T - Shirt Salesman [Radio Edit]'
Cardiff

BOY ROYALS, THE - 'Voice Of The Future'
Newport

CATFISH AND THE BOTTLEMEN - 'Brokenarmy'
Llandudno

JULIE MURPHY - 'Kathleen'
Pembrokeshire

MILLION WAY - 'Daft Pop'
Penarth

GRUFF RHYS - 'Gold Medal Winner'
Bethesda

SHY AND THE FIGHT - 'All That We See Or Seem'
Chester / Llangollen

BEN HAYES - 'Spoken Contribution'
Ruthin

AMERICA - 'California Revisited'
Texas

COLORAMA - 'Hapus'
Benllech

HELL MONEY - 'Beehives'
Bridgend

GREETINGS... - 'You Make Me Crazy'
Cardiff

RED RIOT! - 'Deafen Me'
Mold

LARA CATRIN - 'Spoken Contribution'
Bangor / Cardiff

DATBLYGU - 'Dafydd Iwan Yn Y Glaw'
Cardigan

JKLMNO - 'Where Sorrow Lays'
Wrexham

A J BATTUTA - 'Some Er... Groove?'
Wrexham

LEVI JAMES - 'Quite Frankly'
Mold

DEADSETS, THE - 'I Feel Armed'
Swansea

SUNDANCE - 'Wrong Side Of Town'
Bethesda

MAYDAYS, THE - 'Supplies The Light'
Wrexham

PARANOID SCARECROW - 'Cow Motivation'
Pontlliw

MIKE THOMAS - 'Don't Wanna Play Anymore'
Tonypandy

BREEZ BLOK - 'I Had An Idea'
Dyffryn Ardudwy

RICHARD JAMES - 'Rolling Down'
Croes - Y - Ceiliog

This last week has been more than a little mind-blowing for me. I've been fortunate enough to visit the East coast of the States with one of my favourite bands, The Joy Formidable. I won't recap on the details; there are far too many of them, for a start.

This week's show - live from WGBH in Boston - reflects many aspects of the experience. There is a tour blog I assiduously recorded every day - despite varying levels of lack of sleep and blood alcohol, and an interview with the band.

There's more about my experience with the band here. Much, much more!

Feeling all ambassadorial, the music is a selection of my favourite Welsh tracks of the last year, or so. Not definitely all of them, but a fine selection nonetheless.

Elsewhere, Huw Williams celebrates Wales' most musically influential ex-pat, John Cale.

Send demos/new releases etc. as a download link/mp3 to themysterytour@gmail.com

Many thanks/diolch o galon.

JOY FORMIDABLE, THE - 'Cradle'
Mold

PIXIES, THE - 'Gouge Away'
Boston, U. S.

CATE LE BON - 'Puts Me To Work'
Penboyr

GRUFF RHYS - 'If We Were Words (we Would Rhyme)'
Bethesda

JOY FORMIDABLE, THE - 'Joy Formidable Toy Diary - Day 1 (new York)'
Mold

JOY FORMIDABLE, THE - 'A Heavy Abacus'
Mold

IFAN DAFYDD - 'Treehouse ( E. P. Version )'
Llanrug

UNTIL THE RIBBON BREAKS - 'Pressure'
Penarth

METABEATS - 'The Snap Featuring Mudmowth, Rtkal & Ruffstylz ( Radio Edit )'
Cardiff

HARRY KEYWORTH - 'Flux'
Hebron, Pembrokeshire

JOHN CALE - 'Big Apple Express ( Excerpt )'
Garnant

HUW WILLIAMS - 'Spoken Contribution'
Swansea

JOHN CALE - 'Ghost Story'
Garnant

JOY FORMIDABLE, THE - 'Joy Formidable Toy Diary - Day 2 (new York)'
Mold

JOY FORMIDABLE, THE - 'The Magnifying Glass ( Radio Edit )'
Mold

FUTURE OF THE LEFT - 'Polymers Are Forever'
Cardiff

GALLOPS - 'Miami Spider ( Ponciau Edit )'
Wrexham

JOY FORMIDABLE, THE - 'Joy Formidable Toy Diary - Day 3 ( New York )'
Mold

JOY FORMIDABLE, THE - 'Austere (single Version)'
Mold

SCHOOL, THE - 'Never Thought I'd See The Day'
Cardiff

TOY HORSES - 'Love At Arm's Length ( Live )'
Cardiff

TOY HORSES - 'No One's Ever Gonna Leave You ( Live )'
Cardiff

TOY HORSES - 'Loyal To The Cause ( Live )'
Cardiff

TOY HORSES - 'Interrupt ( Live )'
Cardiff

JOY FORMIDABLE, THE - 'Joy Formidable Toy Diary - Day 4 ( Philadelphia )'
Mold

JOY FORMIDABLE, THE - 'The Greatest Light Is The Greatest Shade'
Mold

JOY FORMIDABLE, THE - 'U. S. Tour Interview Pt. 1'
Mold

JOY FORMIDABLE, THE - 'Maruyama'
Mold

JOY FORMIDABLE, THE - 'U. S. Tour Interview Pt. 2'
Mold

JOY FORMIDABLE, THE - 'I Don't Want To See You Like This'
Mold

Y NIWL - 'Chwech'
Gwynedd

IRMA VEP - 'Breast Fed'
Llanfairfechan

WHITE NOISE SOUND - 'Sunset'
Swansea

DOC DANEEKA & BENJAMIN DAMAGE - 'Battleships Feat. Abigail Wyles'
Swansea

ISLET - 'Entwined Pines'
Cardiff

SUE DENIM - 'Brewster Mccloud'
Bangor

JOY FORMIDABLE, THE - 'Joy Formidable Toy Diary - Day 5 ( Boston )'
Mold

JOY FORMIDABLE, THE - 'Whirring ( Edit )'
Mold

GEORGIA RUTH - 'Bones'
Aberystwyth / Cardiff

The trip from Philadelphia to Boston takes over seven hours, so we're still in transit when I wake up early and eager to get yesterday's tour blog in before my colleagues at the BBC finish work. A rather dead, wintery landscape - dead fields and leafless woods - rolls by in the bus window. By the time I have finished my scrawl about Philly, Boston has crept up all around us. We're quite a distance from downtown Boston. No skyscrapers here. We're in the university district and it's disconcertingly like a British town.

The Joy Formidable on stage in Boston

An old-time theatre front outside the venue declares: "The Joy Formidable: SOLD OUT". More pride! But in the world of rock 'n' roll, it's best to feign indifference: of course the show's sold out!

Back home, today is Radio Wales Music Day. This is my favourite event of the year, bar none. I delude myself into feeling paternal about it because it was 'my idea'. To be an ocean away feels wrong. But what could be more powerful - more inspirational - than being with a Welsh band making real inroads to a sizeable American audience?

The Joy Formidable on stage in Boston

I jump off the bus to do a two-way into Roy Noble's show, thinking "this should be easy, Roy will ask all of the right questions..."

As it transpires, BBC Wales are enduring something of a technological meltdown (not that you'd have noticed) so our two-way is via satellite.

The Joy Formidable on stage in Boston

"There is a very long delay," says Lydia, the producer. "You'll have to do a monologue."

You try doing a cohesive monologue after four nights on the road!

Back at the bus, I get a few words with Bob, the driver. He's highly valued by the crew. They tell me that many drivers are speed freaks and blowhards, unreliable and antisocial. Bob, though, despite having driven for over 20 years - for the likes of Bob Seger and Frank Zappa - is modest and funny.

"I like these guys. They're nice kids and they sound good."

"You seen their show?"

"I only check out the bands who are good to me and the bus... yeah, I like what they're doing."

Quite a compliment, by all accounts.

The Joy Formidable: sold out

Bob sleeps through the day, then comes over to pick everyone up after the show. That's 'Bus Call'. It's reverently adhered to. No one wants to upset Bob.

We have to get our interview done today. It's the main reason the band have flown me over here. But, as they have been so busy with vital preparation for the second album, and they've had a non-stop run of shows for nine nights, there just hasn't been an opportunity.

If you had any illusions that life on the road is a non-stop party, it isn't. These guys are dedicated workers. It's an impressive ethic. There are parties, but only after all of the word is finished.

The Paradise Club is Boston's most legendary venue. Someone inside tells me that "U2 and The Police played here.."

Oh, well. How about hometown band Pixies?

"Hell, yeah! Lots of times."

I go and kiss the stage.

It's a more intimate venue than the others I've visited. It holds just over 900 people. It's a shallower but wider room which brings everyone present closer to the stage. My heart starts to beat a little faster.

Soundcheck done, there is another meet and greet. If you've read all of these tour diaries, you'll be beginning to see a pattern emerging. Their day is more unusual and exciting than ours, but it's also much more regimented. Someone, somewhere is always checking a clock on the band's behalf.

This meet and greet is unusual because the 40-plus people who have turned up for it are allowed on stage to hear the band play a song. The techs look on nervously lest a clumsy foot should total a pedal board.

Ritzy hands a giant kid a hammer to hit the band's gong with. When he gets the opportunity, in the right part of the song, he looks like the happiest big kid in Christendom. Every one on stage is beaming. These meet and greets are powerfully good at forging a connection with the band. My predictable British cynicism might have had me snorting at the thought of these some days ago, but definitely not now.

So, interview time... at last! Once we've negotiated a couple of hurdles - it's rather difficult to find somewhere quiet to film an interview in a venue full of soundchecking bands, or a tour bus with its throbbing generator.

I do love talking to The Joy Formidable. they're passionate, opinionated and fascinatingly contradictory. I can't reveal much. The interview is the domain of the people who paid me to go out there to conduct it. Suffice to say, Rhydian is impassioned, enthused and defiant. Ritzy original, fiery and confident. Matt is funny and a little bored, I think. He has his C Mixolydian scale to learn. He's brushing up on his guitar skills in the long hours between gigs.

The second album will be a real progression. I've heard a couple of unmixed tracks from it and they sound remarkable and different.

There is an underlying frustration that they don't get as much coverage at home as they do in the States. It's not that they have a childish sense of entitlement, far from it. It's more a general bemusement verging on mild disappointment. We all want the people closest to us to love us the most. Don't expect bands to be any different.

Boston turns out to be their best show yet. The locals adore this band and get adored right back:

"We love you Ritzy!"

"Marry me, Ritzy!"

A phenomenal sound system juggernauts the songs into our ears via our shuddering torsos. Every melody surges in on a jet engine of power. There isn't a single weak spot in the set. The one new song that has figured over the last few nights - The Silent Treatment - is the most beautiful paean to a fracturing relationship. Unexpectedly, it brings to mind Elliott Smith. But like all of The Joy Formidable's music, it's them first and foremost.

Can you tell I have been entirely converted? To the point of evangelism?

The next time I see them, the venues will be bigger, no doubt about that. Attempting to stop this band's momentum right now would be akin to trying to harness a comet.

What a band. What a show.

There is a little post-show schmoozing. Not for me. I'm not much of a social animal, not great at ligging, and I'm starting to feel sad at the prospect of saying goodbye. I miss my wife and daughter, but I just want to go on - and on - with this experience. The band's life is filled with brief meetings, many faces and a multitude of hellos and goodbyes. I'll remember this week till the day I cough my final breath: a privilege, a blast, a revelation and - yes - a truly formidable joy.

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The Joy Formidable

To be fair, due to situations outlined in the last blog, I only had an hour - two, at a push - sleep. Fuzzy, fuzzy, fuzzy. For the majority of the day I have felt like I was trying to traverse the deck of a ship in a wild storm. And I wasn't even hungover.

Well, not much.

The Joy Formidable are up against a deadline with their second album. All of the parts are recorded, but as is the case with the modern recording process, there is much to be comped, trimmed, edited and binned before they can begin the all important mixing process.

And much of this happens on the tour bus. Serious aside, this band work hard. They're doing nine - maybe 10 - dates in a row. That with the all-encompassing focus on the album has left them running on fumes. As with all great bands, they save the fuel that is left for the show. So, planned interviews have to be postponed. I understand. The last thing I'd want in their situation is me asking probing, red-faced questions. We'll save that joy and delight for tomorrow. I love tomorrow. It's my favourite day for getting stuff done.

The Joy Formidable

So, to the show: the soundcheck is a little more protracted - nothing is for certain, or predictable, in the technology behind rock 'n' roll. Still, the techs and engineers work until things are as right as they can be, even if this means postponing things like band promo and meet 'n' greets. By the time everything has been tweaked, even in the empty, church-like confines of the Union Transfer, the band sound incredible. I keep saying that, keep using words of that magnitude, but it's true.

Ah, the meet 'n' greet. Did I mention the meet 'n' greet yesterday? This is a phenomenon I've not experienced before. Understandably... not many would line up to get a photo taken and press flesh with me! But it's become an increasingly important part of the US touring band's responsibilities. I think - in general - that UK bands are a little too cynical or self-regarding to schmooze in this way. That The Joy Formidable manage to leave the 40, or so, fans who've turned up to meet them with smiles on their faces is no mean feat considering they all want to pass out on their feet./p>

The Joy Formidable

I ask a couple of the attendees why they're here:

"They're a great band. There's something different about them. I can't explain it."

Do you know where they're from?

"Wales, right?"

Yes, right. Right, right, right!

Everyone on the tour bus, bar tour manager Andy and me, goes to catch a few Zs before the show starts. It's no wonder they're knackered. I've started hallucinating, and I've only been living this life for a couple of days.

I wonder how the lack of energy will affect the show. This band don't just stand there looking disinterested, exerting all of the effort of a moth at midday. They give it their all.

The band who erupt on stage - spurting hot plumes of sound into the Philadelphia night - are unrecognisable from the B-movie zombies who've shambled around wordlessly for most of the day. They sound even better than they did in New York. Perhaps it's because they're having to fight themselves a little. They beat themselves to fantastic effect.

The set is perfectly structured, consumately plotted like one of Chekov's short stories. It has a real beginning, middle and end. I've never seen fewer people drift off partway through the set to go to the bar. It's fair to say that Philadelphia is riveted.

From A Heavy Abacus through to an epic, destructive, Whirring, that ends with Rhydian violating a massive gong releasing all the pent up frustrations and tirednesses of the day in a few hammering blows, it's another phenomenal show.

I'm not using that word lightly.

Every aspect is designed to blow minds and give the audience an ultimate experience: the sound is thunderous but clear and pristine; the light-show is the best I've ever seen in a venue this size; the set - complete with lighthouse, nets and lobster traps (I think!) - mysteriously nautical. None of these things come cheaply, but they improve the wow factor exponentially.

But at the heart of this show's success is the band and their songs. Strip away all of the theatre and I'd still be mindblown. I understand the lineage of much of what I hear, but tracing The Joy Formidable is a much more difficult task. They breathe new colours into a pensionable palette. A few of their songs nudge you off kilter with strange time signatures - and unpredictable changes - but none of that is arty farty. The Joy Formidable's leftfield still neighbours great, great tunes. We've mentioned those great, great tunes already, haven't we?

We haven't really mentioned Ritzy, though. The well worn cliche is that a great performer has the audience eating out of their hand; well, Ritzy could have them eating off a cowshed floor. She is imperious and impish as a performer. One of the reasons the Americans love the Joy Formidable is because they're not too up themselves to put on a show, to invite the audience along for the ride. Songs die and then leap back into life like heroes. It'd take a cynical heart to not be swept up in such drama.

Ritzy wheels around the stage - part psychotic marionette, part Siren, part sweary Welsh woman from Mold. She is remarkable. I do hope that word is italicised. Just as I hope Ritzy, and this great band, get idolised the way they deserve to be.

All fuzziness has been blown out of my system. I even manage a good night's sleep on the tourbus. Wife and daughter aside, I wish I wasn't going home in a couple of days time. This has been incredible.

On to Boston....

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Need some assistance? Read about BBC iD, or get some help with registering. ]]> Adam Walton Adam Walton http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/walesmusic/2012/03/joy-formidable-tour-diary-day-four.shtml http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/walesmusic/2012/03/joy-formidable-tour-diary-day-four.shtml Music Fri, 30 Mar 2012 14:32:39 +0000 Today was my last day in New York, so I tumbled into it sadly. Today would also be my first day sleeping on the tour bus, so I crawled into it with a certain amount of terror. I'm a man who likes his personal space. And a bathroom. A tour bus has neither.

My hosts, The Joy Formidable, are finishing off their second album from the confines of the tour bus. They're due to start mixing it in a couple of weeks time - but there's a lot of housework that needs to be done on the reams that they've recorded before they start that task: favourite takes to be identified and 'topped and tailed', superfluous bits and pieces dumped so that they don't confuse the issue, that kind of thing.

The Joy Formidable on stage

What this means is that the band are incredibly busy during the day. So, an afternoon we'd scheduled to begin our session of interviews with each other gets postponed. That's no problem, I get to wander New York, picking up some cheap Levis and a gargantuan pizza.

Tonight's gig is at Terminal 5. It's an excellent mid-size venue; probably holds in the region of a couple of thousand people. Huw Stephens came here the day he got engaged, I learn later that day.

The Joy Formidable crowd

My engagement is with a camcorder. My official task for the band is to film them for their tour DVD. I haven't filmed anything, ever. They seem to think that this will give my footage an original angle. If original is a euphemism for 'unusable' and 'out of focus', I'd tend to agree with them.

So, I spend a couple of hours fighting with a Panasonic manual and a camera that seems to be the size of my little finger. It's somewhat intimidating. Everyone else on this tour is so, so professional I feel compelled to raise my game. But there is only so high game can realistically be raised.

Ritzy of The Joy Formidable

The band do a meet and greet with part of their audience. Apparently you pay a little extra on the price of your ticket for this. The fans - and the band, who are good natured and affable - really enjoy this. It forges a stronger connection between them and the people who pay to come and see them: no bad thing, at all.

I wish someone had arranged a meet and greet with this flipping camcorder before the day I'm destined to use it for the first time. I'm quite high maintenance, you may have noticed.

Sound gets checked; meals get eaten (but not by me, still wrestling the Panasonic!); then the doors open and people - lots of people - begin to file in.

I'm aware that The Joy Formidable aren't the first Welsh band to tour the States - that a good few have come before them and entertained audiences in the thousands, but the size and fervour of Joy Formidable's audience is impressive. They've played 120+ shows in 60+ cities in the States in the last two years. That's some serious legwork, and it's paying off. A band who can pull near two thousand people in their own right in New York, who rarely get in the local papers at home...

Their set is an avalanche of awesome. I'm allowed to use that word, in that context, while I'm in the States. Consider it my first Joss Stone-ism, bless her. I'm drawn up in the undertow of sound, it's a thrilling set: massive tunes, but with a real leftfield sensibility, strange washes of shoegaze ambience infiltrate the songs and make them sound stranger, more intriguing than if they were bare bones.

Some of the details are lost to me because I'm fighting the camcorder. And the venue's security. You have to pay a sizeable fee if you want to license footage shot in this venue for official use. Hilarious, in retrospect, if they'd seen any of the shaky handed, fuzzy as hell footage I shot. But I got some good photos, I think.

The band play a few new songs - including something very different, very excellent, and very acoustic in the encore. It's a fascinating glimpse of what they've been up to on the back of the bus.

Ah, the bus... my first night on the bus didn't go so well. I ended up in the 'junk bunk' minus a 'comforter'. There was mental-ness going on in the front that may scar me for eternity... actually, it was all good natured valve releasing, and much-deserved, when you consider how hard these people work. Ritzy and Rhydian retire to the back of the bus - despite it being Rhydian's birthday - to get themselves ready for another day of hard, album preparation. That's dedication for you. It's what you need, so they say. And Joy Formidable have it, in abundance.

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Today is the day that I get to meet The Joy Formidable. Of course, I've met them many times before - but this feels different. I'm working for them this time round. So I make sure I arrive early so as not to disappoint them.

The Joy Formidable

Unbeknownst to me, I arrive three hours early - having traipsed half way across the city. I don't do cabs, see: 1) They're expensive and 2) If I only have two days in New York, I'm going to see as much of it as is humanly possible.

I walk from my hotel off Times Square most of the way down 8th Avenue. This is the New York I was expecting. Busy, vibrant, a little seedy in places (Gotham), grand (Madison Square Garden) and alive with a multitude of aromas I can't identify. It's a thrilling, exhausting and surreal traipse, but one of the best traipses I ever did have.

I stand outside a slab of a building at the end of my journey and wait. And wait. And wait a bit more. The security aren't keen to let me in:

"I'm here with The Joy Formidable. They're doing a session for YouTube."

"Do you have a contact name?"

"Er, no."

"Then we can't let you in sir."

I feel like a very old, very disappointing (from the band's point of view) groupie.

So I stand outside in the sun. It's freezing but I manage to get sunburn.

Long story cut short, the band eventually arrive. Seeing Ritzy, Rhydian and Matt over here is almost more than my brain can cope with. Fortunately, they're seasoned travellers and their calmness and professionalism - and friendliness - carry me through.

They may only be a three-piece, but their tour retinue is sizeable. Seems like a massive family has descended on New York: an array of techs, tour managers, engineers... their dedication and expertise is clear the moment the band start to soundcheck. It sounds pristine and powerful: like being hit in the ears by one of the 'proper' limousines that sails down Broadway. (No hen nights in there, for sure.)

They're due to do a live session for YouTube in front of millions at 5pm EST. The soundcheck is finicky, but it's understandable. And the band's attention to detail - making sure everything is right for them - is impressive and laudable. They're not throwing this together, not by any means.

Soundcheck finished, there is some hanging round. And introduction (for me) to the type of humour I can expect on the tour bus from Matt (drummer) and his creative ways with a whiteboard and marker. Let's put it this way, it's unlikely that Google will adopt his design as their logo. More's the pity!

The band don't seem nervous at all, considering what they're about to do. They fall into a routine of limbering vocal chords and playing fingers up. Pizza is ignored in case they end up vomiting on stage. So, I eat the pizza.

The Joy Formidable on stage

And they're on stage. They begin with a sinuous and massive sounding The Greatest Light Is The Greatest Shade and it sounds phenomenal. A sizeable and appreciative audience of Google employees and staff from the band's US record label nod their heads, whoop and holler: "We love you Ritzy!"

And, they do! Not bad for a lass from Rhydymwyn. I feel so, so proud. I can't explain it.

I shan't describe every element of the set. We'll have plenty of time for such post-mortems over the next few nights. Suffice to say, the band are great and occasionally sweary.

It strikes me how much this band are rated over here. I think it's a lot to do with their openness and desire to give people a "bloody good time". Ritzy doesn't use the word "bloody". She does like the odd, strategically-placed f-word!

They come back for a Q&A from the stage. I learn that Ritzy was an au pair in Washington. Not a very good one, by all accounts: "well, do I look bloody maternal?"... again, she doesn't use the word "bloody".

They go gather themselves in the green room - it's a Google conference room and it has the longest table in it you have ever seen. Matt rides round it on a Google scooter. We're taken out for sushi in a fancy restaurant. I'm wearing walking boots and three day old jeans. It's the most amazing meal I've ever eaten.

I get to bed with the band's songs echoing around my head and make a mental note that their success is as simple as that. No need to over intellectualise it. They write good tunes an increasing amount of Americans want to listen to. Worlds and oysters are queuing up at their feet.

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Hey Adam
I manage The Joy Formidable. The band will be touring the East Coast of the US at the end of March and would like you to join them to do some work for a tour DVD.

This is the intinerary:
March
26 Arrive in New York City
27 (day off) spend time with band
28 (T5) NYC show / interview
29 (Philly) show / interview
30 (Boston) Welsh day
31 Leave

Would this be agreeable to you?

Agreeable! AGREEABLE! It's easily the most 'agreeable' correspondence that has ever landed through my letterbox / in my inbox.

So, here I am. Sat in a hotel just off Times Square, two hours from going over to meet the band for a YouTube session - more excited than I have been since my daughter was born. That's some exponential level above 'agreeable', is that!

The only hiccup was that Radio Wales Music Day was scheduled to happen whilst I was away: an annual event that I'm proud to have (verbally, at least) been the instigator of, and an event that has become so, so important at sharing Welsh music to a broader audience.

Fortunately, our editor and senior producers saw the worth in my being over in the United States with one of Wales' finest bands. I don't say that loosely. The Joy Formidable are right up there in my estimation with Super Furry Animals and Future Of The Left.

My musical love doesn't get any deeper than that. The fact that the Joy Formidable are from my hometown of Mold just makes the whole thing that much sweeter. Mold, a humble market town in Flintshire, exporting a band whose hard work and inspirational music has brought them to the brink of full-on, international success, would have been unimaginable when I started out in a band there in the early 90s.

So, over the course of my visit - and to coincide with Radio Wales Music Day - I'm going to bring you backstage, front-of-stage and tour bus access to a Welsh band making a real name for themselves and their music on a much wider stage. I'll do my best to keep a daily diary of events on the road with the band here on the BBC Wales Music blogs. And we'll have interviews and live tracks on BBC Radio Wales as part of Radio Wales Music Day itself.

My show on Saturday 31 March will come live from Boston. And not the one in Lincolnshire.

It should be something of an inspiration and an education. It will be for me. That is, if the band haven't kicked me off the tourbus after one night of vegetarian(ish) flatulence and occasional, baritone snoring.

New York

Here's a picture out of my hotel room window just to prove that I'm here and not typing this in from the studios in Wrexham.

Watch - and listen - to this space...

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Hurry up alien overlords!

The digital revolution initially meant that the hundreds of millions of LPs and singles that had been sold prior to 1985 had suddenly become obsolete. CDs were a fraction of the size, and men in cardigans would stand in awe listening to the new CD format remarking: "I can hear Knopfler's fingers moving up and down the frets!" in awe.

A major step forwards, then, for all concerned.

The mp3 then did away with any need for the impracticality of a physical product. All of a sudden, you could store a record shop-ful of music in something the size of a fag packet. And, as we consumerists all know, more is always more. We've turned music into cornflakes. Yay, for us!

Alien overlords... come in alien overlords...

But records clung on - like men with beards and bottles of absinthe at dissolute house parties.

It was much easier for DJs and vinylologists standing atop a pile of records to look smug and superior than on a pile of mp3s. Gawky boys would argue about the merits of which format sounded best, as pointless a discussion as one pondering the best flavour of Monster Munch. It's always vinyl. It's always Pickled Onion. It just is.

And records clung on in other ways too. Real, music lovers (and not - definitely not - "real music" lovers) knew that the most interesting sounds weren't to be found piled high, five for £30 in HMV, or on the splash page of the iTunes (or equivalent) store. A tide of obsolete and unloved vinyl flooded out of homes conned into replacing them with CDs or an iPod.

That tide washed up in carboot sales across the land, charity shops, and - most pertinent for this love letter to a cultural institution facing a firing squad in the morning, secondhand record shops.

I had to begin my treatise on the demise of Cob records in Bangor with a convoluted soliloquy on the main reason I love the place: it's their vast racks of used vinyl.

Cob Records is one of north Wales' last collections of affordable secondhand records. Nothing is over-priced (a problem almost everywhere else - where Johnny Come Lately vinyl fashionistas like me are exploited with the ease of a card shark ripping off a toddler). It has been a reef of inspiration to generations of north Walean musicians and music-lovers, too skint or too savvy to fall for the music industry's endless slew of reissues and remasters.

This should not be underestimated. If music people can't get the music to inspire them, they shrivel up, can't bloom as fulsomely as they would if well-watered. In fact, by accident, I may - finally - have stumbled across the perfect metaphor for Cob: it is a well of music, and for those of us with an interest in these matters, the knowledge of a post Cob drought is a sobering one indeed.

Yes, you can buy records on Amazon, eBay or their digital equivalents, but it's impossible to replicate the browsability you get in a second hand record shop, where you finger stumble into something great - something you fall in love with - by absolute happenchance.

Cob has given me Emitt Rhodes, Steve Miller, Georgie Fame, Van Der Graaf Generator, Y Fflaps, 9Bach and Tystion - all records I adore. All for under £15.

iTunes recommendations pale sadly and stupidly in comparison.

Then add into the equation the brilliant and knowledgeable staff - especially Alan Holmes, acclaimed godfather of the Welsh underground - and you have a unique cultural service that we're about to lose forever.

"Well, if it was that valuable a service it'd be a viable business and wouldn't be closing down, Adam."

Good point. Well, it's a good point if you measure everything in life in terms of profit and loss. That's what bankers do, isn't it? And haven't they helped build a better and brighter world for us all?

Stuffy pen pushers decided a long time ago that galleries and theatres and operas were worthy of subsidy and funding, but rock 'n' roll - even now in its dotage - hardly qualifies for a similar amount of support. And record shops - as commercial enterprises - would find it triply hard to qualify for funding.

But that doesn't alter the fact that we're about to lose an incredibly valuable resource.

The alien overlords can have the last word. They're over here next to the rack marked 'Vinyl Just In':

"Hey, Xrtq, hold back that demolition order... I've just found a copy of Sixto Rodriguez's Cold Fact. Let me have a flick through the rest before we hit the red button..."

I shan't blather on, really I shan't.

I have a cold that'd stun a Tyrannosaurus Rex. My nose is redder than a drunk strawberry's. My head is full of drunk, green sloths. I don't make the best of patients, in all honesty.

But - BUT - I have music. Music that'd clears passages better than owt derived from menthol remedies.

There are first-time plays for Lux Lisbon, Isaac Wadsworth, The Strangers, The Knocks and Paint Happy.

To join this illustrious band (of bands), throw new releases/demos and correspondence at themysterytour@gmail.com.

I like high quality mp3s and download links. And if you think that's me being choosy and pedantic, you just wait.

Elsewhere on the show, Huw Williams plays some Lo0p, who seem to be fuzzy about the difference between Os and 0s.

Lara Catrin translates something beautiful from Race Horses.

And Ben Hayes gets a bit haughty about the amount of dust on our stylus, while it skates woollily across something brilliant by Dave Mason.

I'm off now. I have to get Dyno-Rod out to clear my sinuses.

Have an excellent, music-filled week y'all, Adam Walton.

JOY FORMIDABLE, THE - 'Cradle'
Mold

FUTURE OF THE LEFT - 'Sheena Is A T - Shirt Salesman [ Radio Edit ]'
Cardiff

CATE LE BON - 'Puts Me To Work'
Penboyr

RICO SUAVE - 'Nostalgia'
Newport

FALCON LAKE - 'All I Want'
Newport / Cardiff

COUSINS - 'Baby Baby Baby [ Give Me More ]'
Pembrokeshire / Aberystwyth

SUICIDE - 'Ghost Rider'
New York

SOUNDHOG - 'John Barleycorn Must Ramble On [ Traffic Vs. Led Zeppelin ]'
Ruthin

LITTLE ARROW - 'Our Taste Is Violence'
Cardiff

HUW WILLIAMS - 'Spoken Contribution'
Swansea

LO0P - 'Nerves Of Steel'
Swansea

TOY HORSES - 'Play What You Want'
Cardiff

HOUDINI DAX - 'O. L. L.'
Cardiff

CODEX LEICESTER - 'Strong Like Bull [ E P Version ]'
Mold / Leicester

UNDERSOUND - 'Meet Me In My Shadow'
Caerphilly

CRASH DISCO - 'Alice'
Bangor

SCRIBER - 'Holland House'
Cardiff

LUX LISBON - 'Bullingdon Club'
Unknown.

ISAAC WADSWORTH - 'Flowers And Chocolates'
Ffestiniog

O FEMI - 'Amazing Grace [ So Amazing ]'
Camarthen

ED!T - 'Come For You'
Tenby

BROKEN VINYL CLUB, THE - 'Diamonds In Her Eyes'
Cardiff

SWEET SPOTS, THE - 'Love So Bad'
Cardiff

SAM AIREY - 'The Unlocking'
Anglesey

BLACK EAGLE CHILD - 'Phrases Of The Moon'
Milwaukee/ Bridgend (label)

PLYCI - 'Nogg'
Rhyl

BRECCIA - 'Binocular'
?

DOC DANEEKA AND ABIGAIL WYLES - 'Toby Jug'
Cardiff

JULIE MURPHY - 'Essex Song'
Pembrokeshire

Y NIWL - 'Dauddegtri'
Gwynedd

LARA CATRIN - 'Spoken Contribution'
Bangor / Cardiff

RACE HORSES - 'Glo Ac Oren'
Aberystwyth

STRANGERS, THE - 'Emilia Rose'
Bala

KNOCKS, THE - 'Road Run [ You Do You Do You Don't You Don't ]'
Cardiff

PAINT HAPPY - 'Not Saving A World That Ends'
Merthyr Tydfil

BEN HAYES - 'Spoken Contribution'
Ruthin

DAVE MASON - 'Only You And I Know'
Worcester

HEHFU - 'Slow'
Caerphilly

TOYPOP! - 'Yellow Brick Road [album Version]'
Newport

Julie Murphy is a folk musician, but that four-letter word - dragging hundreds of years of culture and social history behind it - doesn't cover half of Julie's scope. Given four times the space I have here, I'd be hard pushed to scratch at the surface of the rest. Every one of the songs she sings has a story to it, with roots in her life, and a whole network of roots stretching back into pasts almost forgotten. Importantly, all of those roots link to the song flowering in that moment, on that stage, in front of we, the fortunate audience.

So we become part of that song's story, too.

It's quite a naturalistic feat. Organically inclusive - and all the more powerful for it.

I come to Theatr Clwyd with my own dragnet of memories. I kissed my first love in the corridor next to this room. I played my second ever gig on that stage. We hosted a brilliant Radio Wales Music Day concert here last March. This venue has been part of my life for as long as I can remember. I'm on Proustian overload. If someone started baking a cake with a half-remembered scent, my long-term memory would explode in a cloud of luminous spores.

I'm here with my daughter Ava. She's nine. I'm not trying to impose music on her, but I do dearly want her to witness the magic of live, human performance, those distinct from dance routines, pyrotechnics and Auto Tune. I couldn't have brought her to see anyone better.

My mum and dad have come along, too. Ava and I got in on the guest list, I let my mum and dad pay; to assuage my freeloader guilt, probably.

My first experience of 'folk' music would have been my dad's early Bob Dylan albums. When I started listening to them in the late 70s/early 80s, they didn't sound like historical artefacts. They sounded scary, formidable, alive and prescient. Dylan's please-yourself voice had a mischievous truth to it. I pretended I didn't like it. I complained every time A Hard Rain's Gonna Fall or It's Alright Ma soundtracked Sunday tea (it was never ready in time for lunch). But I soaked it all up with silica gel ears.

This isn't much like my usual kind of gig. No one's outside smoking like their life depended on it. The bus passes in inside pockets aren't taking the audience to campuses. The moment Julie walks to the piano a pristine silence cloaks the room. There isn't a single jerk at the bar half spilling a pint of Guinness, while being boorish down a mobile phone. No one - not a single solitary person - watches the ensuing concert on an iPhone screen. Can you imagine that?

Julie begins by telling us about Essex Song. She's from Essex originally. Old maps showed her where the fields were, where the farriers and blacksmiths lived; the new maps are anonymous suburban sprawl. Things had been built on and forgotten. Folk music's philosophy is a lot about not forgetting stuff. Julie's art is in taking these things out from behind glass and breathing now and heart into them. The loss of geographical history in Essex Song is a metaphor for that ache of being that permeates every heart. It's sort of what makes us human.

Although I don't have proof, I don't think cows get maudlin looking at old maps.

It's a beautiful opening. Julie's much lauded voice is lauded for good reason. We hear so many people sing in accents and mannerisms like viruses, it's an awe-inspiring shock to hear someone sing so naturally, with so much truth. Julie Murphy could sing you the News Of The World and you'd believe every word. Murdoch missed a trick, there. Julie wouldn't have been for the buying, though. You could bet your firstborn on that.

My firstborn is faring well. She is entranced. Partly this is because Julie is accompanied by Ceri Jones. Ceri is a harpist and trombonist of Canadian and Ukrainian heritage. Ava has been learning the euphonium in school. Her best friend Mimi is learning the trombone.

"...But she doesn't sound like that."

I bet she doesn't.

Ceri's brass and harp are subtle and wonderful embellishments. They help alleviate some of the gravitas of the songs. An unaccompanied piano - regardless of who's playing it, Les Dawson excepted - playing minor chords can get lost in its own profundity. Not here, though.

Julie tells us how these songs grew out of a piano hitherto abandoned in a corner of her house. How the notes that became songs filled the gap left by her flown children. How hanging out in the kitchen with music making friends baked her a new album without her having to pay much attention to ingredients and instructions.

The next lyric repeats the line: "You are flown from me, but I'm always with you" - an unadorned, heartfelt and moving truth that exemplifies Julie's economic poetry. Quite what she'd make of my blather, I don't want to know...

We hear Two Sisters, a traditional song about one sister murdering another, but, Julie proclaims gleefully, "it has a happy ending..."

As far as I can tell, that happy ending involves the body of the dead sister being fashioned into a fiddle that then gets taken to the murderous sister's wedding, where it (the fiddle) tells the assembled guests what really happened, a plot that makes EastEnders look like In The Night Garden.

Julie finishes the first of her two sets with The Fountain (from her excellent new album A Quiet House). It's a wonderful song - a starkly beautiful Welsh cousin of Joni Mitchell's Carey, all rooted in fraying - but increasingly precious - memories of Padua. Imagine Laurel Canyon under occluded skies and you have it.

Better still, invest in a copy of the album. You'll be hard pressed to find anything more moving, plaintive or intuitive, from any era or genre.

Ava is way past her bedtime, so - with great reluctance - we drift home during the interval, our hearts filled with Julie's music and a hundred new stories.

Julie Murphy launches the new album with a webcast from www.juliemurphymusic.com on Monday 16 April at 8.30pm.

This show - a no-holds-barred celebration of Welsh music in all its multifold shapes and forms - is a democratic affair. Maybe 'benevolent dictatorship' would be more accurate. What I'm trying to say is this: there are no headliners or scene stealers, each and every one of the 40-ish pieces of music exists in its own temporal zone of wonder. Man.

In other words, we don't necessarily have an exclusive session or probing in depth interview with a 'star' to trumpet here, so I'll pretend that that is down to a philosophical stance rather than a lack of pull or forward planning.

What you'll hear - should you click that iPlayer link - is three hours of ace, mostly Welsh music. There are wonderful new tracks from Future Of The Left, Doc Daneeka & Abigail Wyles and The School (I'm throwing a street party to celebrate their return later this afternoon, should you wish to come over... bring pop - obviously - and cupcakes) - and we have debut plays for Cousins, Magpie Instinct, Tender Prey, Televisor, Shrunken Heads, Dementio 13, Seconds From Ruin, Simon Love's Cock & Balls, Brother Cubs and Rachel Rimmer.

And that's what fires me, the search for fascinating new Welsh artists, people whose creative visions I have never encountered hitherto. Man. It's the credo of the show for 2012: to not rest on its substantial laurels, relying on the ace that we already know about, but to seek new ace to interweave amongst the old ace.

To that end, if you have any ace/new releases/demos/recommendations/observations/new similes, please address them to themysterytour@gmail.com.

I prefer to receive demo submissions directly, as a high quality mp3 or download link, please.

Elsewhere in this week's show, Alan Holmes reminds us of the gnarly smarts of APV, and Ben Hayes shares a track off a Patto album that'd cost you £200 in't' shops.

TWO HUNDRED POUNDS! (no pence).

Have an excellent, groove-filled, good vibe attuned week.

Man.

JULIE MURPHY - 'Piano Abstract'
Pembrokeshire

JULIE MURPHY - 'The Fountain'
Pembrokeshire

METHOD, THE - 'Art Gallery'
Cardiff

60FT DOLLS - 'Yellow Candles'
Newport

SKINDRED - 'Cut Dem'
Newport

FUTURE OF THE LEFT - 'Camp Cappuccino ( Radio Edit )'
Cardiff

GOLDEN FABLE - 'Motorcycle Emptiness'
Ewloe

CUT RIBBONS - 'Walking On Wires'
Llanelli

GEORGIA RUTH - 'Bones ( Mastered Ep Version )'
Aberystwyth / Cardiff

SHY AND THE FIGHT - 'Breaks'
Chester / Llangollen

SCHOOL, THE - 'Never Thought I'd See The Day'
Cardiff

ALAN HOLMES - 'Spoken Contribution'
Bangor

A. P. V. - 'Could You Care'
Anglesey

COUSINS - 'Walk With The Dark'
Pembrokeshire / Aberystwyth

SAM AIREY - 'To All The Pieces Of The Puzzle'
Anglesey

QUICKSAILS - 'Empty And Full'
Chicago, Welsh Label

FALCON LAKE - 'Shores'
Newport / Cardiff

REVOLUTIONARY SPIRIT, THE - 'Last Memories'
Wrexham

MAGPIE INSTINCT - 'Goalposts'
Cardiff

MR HUW - 'Y Ferch Dryloyw'
Caernarfon

FALLS - 'Naughty Strawberry'
Deeside

TENDER PREY - 'Bug Blood'
Cardiff

SUE DENIM - 'Brewster Mccloud'
Bangor

METABEATS - 'Eyeseeyou ( Featuring Dubbledge )'
Cardiff

DOC DANEEKA AND ABIGAIL WYLES - 'Toby Jug'
Cardiff

CASTOR - 'Through Light'
Prestatyn

TELEVISOR - 'Stand Up'
Holyhead

SHRUNKEN HEADS - 'Through The Roof'
Chepstow

DEMENTIO 13 - 'Crash Street'
Cardiff

KNICKERS - 'Darling'
London / Cardiff Distribution

LITTLE ARROW - 'Our Taste Is Violence'
Cardiff

SECONDS FROM RUIN - 'Distant Light'
Valleys

SIMON LOVE'S COCK & BALLS - 'It Seemed Like A Good Idea At The Time'
Cardiff / London

BROTHER CUBS - 'Best Times'
Llantwit Major

BEAR BEATS BAND, THE - 'Sunrise'
Ruthin

BEN HAYES - 'Spoken Contribution'
Ruthin

PATTO - 'The Man'
London

RACHEL RIMMER - 'The Waves'
Swansea

COUSINS - 'Look Good For The City'
Pembrokeshire / Aberystwyth