The merry month of May might have been a rather cold one, but it was full of heart warming musical activity.
I've been hearing about new festivals on my show, and as well as Llangrannog's Gwyl Nol a Mlaen, and Ymuno Festival in Abergele, Little Arrow told me about an excellent event called Fire In the Mountain, a community coming together near Aberystwyth to help raise funds for the farm there.
This happened at the end of May, with a whole day dedicated to Welsh music on the Sunday too! Listen out for more of these small events highlighted on my BBC Radio Wales show weekly.
The other favourite part of the show is the chat with BBC Introducing Acts of the Week. The following acts have all been played and exclusively discovered through sending their music in to bbc.co.uk/introducing.
Seventeen-year-old Seren is from Crickhowell, mid Wales. Her songs are charm personified, totally natural sounding, and ridiculously innocent and cute. It's the musical equivalent of a baby penguin.
Seren The Heron
The most wonderful thing about Seren's music is where the inspiration came from; she went to Green Man Festival, which is an event on her doorstep, and the singer-songwriters and folk artists there inspired her to start making her own music. One day soon we'll see her playing this big event on her doorstep.
An act first introduced to me by Cowbois Rhos Botwnnog is the wonderful Welsh lilting sounds of Gwyllt, which translated means 'wild'. Its the alias of Amlyn Parry.
Gwyllt
There's a big rich north Walean accent, deep all encompasing vocals, and a full band behind him on these recordings: Alun Gaffey, Richard Chitty, Mirain Evans, Llio Non, Ceren Roberts, Deian Owain, and Sion Meurig. He's wasted no time in getting an album together, and it's out on Sprigyn Ymborth this month.
I'm excited by two things connected to Geraint Rhys. He's not only a fantastic new honest, political, and poignant artist in his own right, but is also the latest signing to a new label out of Newport.
Geraint Rhys
Run as a not for profit organisation, Junta Records have quite an eclectic bill from Geraint's music to Science Bastard, Hi Fi Murders, and Kill For The Atlantic. I'm glad to hear Geraint is currently recording his debut album All That Is Left Is Us, and I look forward to getting him in session on the show.
There's a quirky and kooky element to Vinna Bee's music that you can't put a handle on, but that's the beauty of it too. She's eclectic and experimental in a liberating way, finding her feet after being in many bands and outfits but this is her finding her own voice and having a lot of fun with it.
I love artists that use the soundscapes around them in their music, and Vinna has used all kinds of crazy sounds in Treasures of the Apiarist, a five- track album/EP.
