One Year, Week 14 - Recording with Julie

Dreams...

This is it... here...

All that I left behind, this long journey, all culminates in this moment.  I don't think I could have dreamed up something so unbelievable, so incredible...

I have written often about Julie.  Julie was the one and only Welsh singer that caught my attention all those years ago.  Her music is what inspired me to take an interest in Welsh music.  Her voice is the voice I hear at night, the voice that carries me forward on my journey.

How is it that I'm now recording with my guide and mentor... I don't know.  But I do know that I now count both Julie and Ceri "Ffliwt" amongst my closest friends.

One Year, Week 13 - Relations and Irish music

Borscht (beetroot soup) is my favourite food.  Just to let you know...

My dad used to say that Y Gof (the blacksmith) was magic.  That must have been true.  They seemed to have had some sort of secret knowledge anyway.  My grandfather, who was descended from a Blacksmith family on his father's side, was an exceptional poet.  I think he mainly wrote in the old style, using a form of Welsh poem called the Englyn.  Englyn are amazing little snapshots, using only 30 syllables (7+3, 6, 7, 7) and a form of alliteration that twirls in upon itself like Celtic knotwork.

My grandfather, John "Jac Carnowen" Owen-Jones, was captain of a ship and his first mate was his cousin, Jac Alun Jones of Cilie.  Jac Alun was also descended from a blacksmith and his family were quite well known for their poetry at one point.

The two wrote several poems to each other, some of which are published in Morwyr y Cilie by Jon Meirion (mab Jac Alun).