Day 13 - Pencader, the session continues!

What can I say?  More great music with good friends.

A slightly more subdued day but to my surprise and pleasure the jam continued for most of the afternoon.  Almond cake for breakfast.  In the picture, the white house to the far left and closest to the lane belongs to Julie and Ceri.

I jammed a tune out with Julie which was cool.  Her voice blows my mind so it was a real treat and honour.

We talked a little about how great Llio Rhydderch is (triple harp). She's easily the best harp player in Wales if not the world.  I'm hoping to get lessons with her at some point.

Anyway, Ceri R. said that Llio was on top of the mountain.  Martin said, it must get pretty lonely up at the top of that mountain.  Meanwhile, there's the rest of us, having a good old time running around the hills of mediocrity.  LOL!  What a perfect image.  Martin's crazy funny!  What a character (tipyn o deryn yw e!).


Ceri R. mentioned my hands looked pretty muscly when I play the harp.  And I nodded.  Most have my harp teachers have always wondered what the hell I'm doing with my hands.  I told Ceri R., "I know, I know, I play like an ox."  Well, they sure thought that was funny.  A stocky runt with ox hands.  That's me!  lol!

Julie asked me to sing a tune so I sang an original of mine called "Of Joy".  It's a tune about a couple of friends of mine but I won't get into it.  As I told them, it's too personal.  Ceri R. really likes my voice.  Said it had a nice high quality yet rich.  He mentioned again that I sound like Rufus and have that same fragility.  I can't believe the complements but nevertheless, thank you!  He wants to get me to sing more.

We all played in the front room through the afternoon until it was time for supper.  We had more great food but took it easy on the drinks.

They also want me to play some Twmpaths with them which would be great!  We jammed until supper and then chilled out for awhile.  I had to take the harp back to Llandysul unfortunately.  Allan gave us a tour of the shop when we arrived.  He's done a lot of great work with the community and he often hires students from the local school to apprentice with him.  Allan really wants to make Llandysul harp-central and he's already created a vibrant scene here.  His big dream is to build an amphitheater in the hill across from the shop in order to feature local musicians.  What a beautiful guy!

If any of you are interested in harps, his are really great.  The Eos harp has 38 strings and is strung with high tension to simulate the pedal harp.  It has a massive big tone.  The Gwennol, the one I was loaned, has 34 strings and is much lighter strung.  The tone is really sweet and I quite enjoyed it.  I'll probably rent to own the Gwennol when I get a little more settled.  Check his website...
http://www.welsh-harps.com

We chatted until about 9 that night before Martin and Sille had to go home.  I ended up having to stay one more night in Pencader as the buses are non-existent on Sundays.

Unfortunately, I didn't take any photos but I think Julie took some.  I'll try to get some copies.
Next, back towards Cardiff...
Hwyl.