Teiliwr: Tailor

An Aberystwyth-based trio brought together in 2014 by, so they say, a common interest in ‘old songs of madness, love, death, adventure and everyday life,’ Kate Saunders, Jon Davies and Dafydd Eto bring characteristic close vocal harmonies and instruments including Appalachian dulcimer, fiddle, bouzouki, guitar, mandolin, whistles, concertina, harmonica and bodhrán to their impressive and engaging second album. Although openers ‘Y March Glas’ (The Grey Stallion) and ‘Hen Fechetan & The Burning of the Piper's Hut’, are both sung in Welsh, there are several songs in English including ‘Follow Me, Ruth’, an original song by Saunders about Ruth Ellis, the last woman to be hanged in the UK, and ‘Paddy West's’, a traditional cautionary tale of a ‘charlatan sailing school in Liverpool.’ The dance tune sets ‘Gully's Maggot & Hare's Maggot’ and ‘The Unfortunate Tailor & The Twisted Hem’ are spirited and their harmony singing is especially vivid on the a capella ‘Rigs of the Times’, a traditional song updated with verses reflecting some modern evils. Teiliwr: Tailor's closing track, ‘Y Gŵr Wrth Ffynnon Jacob’ (The Man at Jacobs Well), which is an early 19th-century Welsh hymn was learned from Jon Davies' great grandmother.