Y Tribanwr

With a name that translates as ‘The South Walians,’ there are no prizes for guessing where Gregg Lynn (vocals, guitar), Nia Lynn (vocals, percussion), Bernie KilBride (fiddle), Imogen O'Rourke (flute, vocals), Dan B James (guitar, mandocello) and Dean Ryan (bass) hail from. Their repertoire since they formed in the early 80s has been based around traditional songs and tunes that originate from Glamorgan and Gwent, sung in an ancient dialect known as Gwenhwysig (or ‘Gwentian’). Gregg Lynn has recently been researching and collecting examples of the unique Triban Morgannwg poetic form, in which poetry in four-line verses would be interspersed with short musical refrains between the lines. Most commonly, tribans would be used by the old poets and singers as a means of conveying stories about ordinary people, effectively demonstrated here by ‘Cymeriadau’ (Characters), although evidently they were also sung by ox-drivers as a way of motivating the oxen while ploughing. This album collects more than 70 of these, assembled and arranged to traditional songs and tunes by Nia Lynn and KilBride.

Musically, it is appropriately plain and simple and, certainly to untutored (or non-oxen) ears, perhaps the most striking aspect of the project is the rough-hewn vocals.