World Wide Waves 5/24/26 :: Dai Bando host
“The Welsh language is not always easily digested by anglophones. Full of mutating consonants, tongue-twisting clicks and trills and that tricksy double-L sound (the voiceless alveolar lateral fricative, to give it its proper name), it is a language of ambivalence, one that can sound simultaneously guttural and melodious. This ambivalence is most noticeable in Welsh-language song, which has an uncanny and possibly unique ability to be melancholic, passionate, thoughtful and elated all at once.” – Thomas Blake/KLOF
Audio available for 2 weeks after air date | Clip begins with final minutes of Sunday Morning Jazz with Ricky J
Open / Duw It’s Hard!
– Jon Langford & the Men of Gwent “Duw It’s Hard” The Legend Of LL 2015
– Bryn Tyrfel “Ar Lan Y Mor” (trad) We’ll Keep A Welcome, 2000
– Huw Marc Bennett “Y Gwydd” title track 2023
– Catrin Finch & Aoife Ní Bhriain(single, 2026)
– Bryn Tyrfel “Suo Gan” (trad) We’ll Keep A Welcome, 2000
– Gwenifer Raymond “Incantation” Strange Lights Over Garth Mountain, 2020
– BraGod “Shepherd’s Hey” Kaingk, 2004
– Katell Keineg “Partisan” O Seasons, O Castles 1994
Hell For Certain
– Irving Pichel narration from How Green Was My Valley (d. John Ford) 1941
– John Cale “Myfawny” (trad) from the 1999 documentary Fragments of a Rainy Season *
– Gwenifer Raymond “Hell For Certain” Strange Lights Over Garth Mountain, 2020
– Adwaith “Feli y Dod” Melyn 2018
– Cerys Hafana “Atsain” Angel 2025
– Gwyneth Glyn “Can y Cwyn” Tro 2017
House and Home
– John Cale “Andalucia” Paris 1919 (1970)
– Agnes Obel “Close Watch” (J Cale) Riverside
– Catrin Finch & Sekou Keita “Cofiwch Dryweryn” Soar 2018
– Charli xcx & John Cale “House” from the film Wuthering Heights 2026
– Bryn Tyrfel “My Little Welsh Home” We’ll Keep A Welcome, 2000
– Endaf Emlyn “Nos Da” (trad) Salem 1974
Came, Saw, Conquered
– Katell Keineg “One Hell of a Life” Jet, 1997
– Katell Keineg “Leonor” Jet, 1997 *
– Katell Keineg “Veni, Vidi, Vici” Jet, 1997
Raging Angels
– Richard Burton “Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night” (Dylan Thomas) *
– John Cale “Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night” Words for the Dying 1992
– 4 Yn Y Bar “Dacw Ngharia I Lawr Yn y Berlian” The Music of Wales 1999
– Catrin Finch “Angel” Notes to Self 2026
Those Were the Days
– Mary Hopkin “Adryn Pur” Live at the Royal Festival 1972
– Mary Hopkin “Morning Has Broken” Live at the Royal Festival 1972 *
– Adwaith “Tare” Melyn 2022
– Cerys Hafana “Angel” Angel 2025
Waiting For You To Smile
– Rhos Male Choir “Land of My Fathers” / Welsh National Anthem Music From the Welsh Mines
– a murphy (aka Andrew James Murphy) “Haunt” (title track) 2026
– Katell Keineg “I’m Waiting For You To Smile” O Seasons O Castles 1994
– Cerys Matthew “Ca the Yowes” (I Pagan) Explorer 2011 *
– The Gentle Good (aka Gareth Bonello) “The Fisherman” Ruins/Adfeilion 2011
Dahl’s Pig / How Green / Goodbye
– Tom Conti recites “The Pig” by Roald Dahl
– Michael Sloan “The Short Stories of Roald Dahl” Wales 2024
– Alfred Newman “The Family and Bronwyn” How Green Was My Valley (d. John Ford) 1941
– Huw Marc Bennett “Y Fedwen” Heol Las, 2026
– The Gentle Good (aka Gareth Bonello)”Titrwm Tatrwm” (trad) While You Slept I Went Out Walking 2008 *
– Mary Hopkin “Goodbye” (P McCartney) single,1968
– Cor Care r’Aran “Men of Harlech” The Music of Wales, 1999
– Gwenifer Raymond “Worn Out Blues” Strange Lights Over Garth Mountain, 2022
NOTES
- The subject of Katell Keineg’s song “Leonor” is Leonor Fini (30 August 1907 – 18 January 1996) was an Argentine-Italian surrealist painter, designer, illustrator, and author, known for her depictions of powerful and erotic women. [Wikipedia]
- The composer of “Ca the Yowes” was Isabel Pagan (c. 1740 – 1821), also known as “Tibbie”, a Scottish poet of the Romantic Era. [Wikipedia]
- Do not go gentle into that good night” is a famous villanelle by Welsh poet Dylan Thomas, urging his dying father to resist death with passion, not acceptance, by “raging against the dying of the light”
- Catrin Finch used the phrase “Cofiwch Dryweryn“ for her song title. It has itself become a prominent political slogan for Welsh nationalism. In 1965, the Liverpool City Council in England flooded the Tryweryn Valley in North Wales to build a reservoir to supply water to English industries. The flooding forcibly displaced the residents of Capel Celyn, a tight-knit, predominantly Welsh-speaking community. It happened despite fierce protests and a petition signed by the vast majority of Welsh Members of Parliament.
“Morning Has Broken” is a Christian hymn first published in 1931. It has words by English author Eleanor Farjeon and was inspired by the village of Alfriston, then set to a traditional Gaelic tune, “Bunessan”
- “Titrwm Tatrwm” is a love song from Anglesey in which the singer is at the window of his sweetheart complaining about the bitter weather outside and reflecting on the yearning he has when away from her. Titrwm Tatrwm is an onomatopoeic phrase for the knocking on the window, equivalent to say tip-tap. Published in ‘Alawon Gwerin Môn’ [Folk Songs from Anglesey] by Grace Gwyneddon Davies (per Second Hand Songs)
Myfanwy Translation:
“Why does anger, Oh Myfanwy,
Fill your dark eyes?
And your gentle cheeks, Oh Myfanwy,
Without blushing while beholding me?
Where is the smile that was upon your lips
That kindled foolish faithful love?
Where is the sound of your sweet words
That drew my heart after you?” [Wiki]