Te yn y Grug (Tea in the Heather)

Welsh musician Al Lewis is well established as a singer-songwriter, both as a solo artist and as half of Americana duo Lewis & Leigh. This concept album sees him moving in a new direction after he was commissioned in 2018 to write the music for The National Eisteddfod of Wales’ sell-out choral musical Te yn y Grug (Tea in the Heather). This album atmospherically combines spoken archives from the slate quarries of North Wales, with folk-influenced songs to transport us to the turn of the last century where it exposes the hardships and suffering of these resilient communities. The opening track, ‘Awn i'r Mynydd’ (Let's Go to the Mountain), is a call to arms, ‘climb higher… life is but a mountain for every living man.’ Although taken from a musical, these songs are not frothily happy, however, we do get a quiet sense of hope and determination in the compositions, which includes an American hymn from the 19th century and a piece of prose set to music: ‘there is a truth within the peace of mountains.’ Lewis has gathered talented musicians together here and has created a fitting legacy and tribute to the original story written 60 years ago by Kate Roberts.