Truck Festival 2015 - Part 3

I wrote on Monday, in the first instalment, that I wasn't going to do this by stage. So far I haven't but now I shall. The "new stage" at Truck 2015 was the Palm City Stage but its greatest attraction was that from start until early evening on both days it was home to Gorwelion - Horizons, a joint project by The Arts Council and BBC6 Music, that seeks to promote music of all genres that comes from Wales. It is nothing specifically about traditional music, although that can of course be included, and although I didn't hear all of it the variety on offer was wide. I have a soft spot for music from Wales and therefore I have mentioned plenty of it over the years in these posts.
This first artist I mentioned recently and was therefore delighted to see that, when the line-up was revealed, she was part of it.

Hannah Grace, who hails from Cardiff.

Her powerful voice makes me think of North Wales' Casi Wyn, although the latter predominantly writes songs in Welsh. I'm not quite sure where she is with new music other than to say that she played the Gorwelion-Horizons stage at Brighton's Great Escape 2015 back in May.
This next artist, with his acoustic Americana, would not have been at all out of place at the nearby Saloon Bar stage (of which much more soon!).

Dan Bettridge, described here in the words of Gorwelion-Horizons.

These next two acts are as different to each other as they are to either of the aforementioned. That was the big appeal of this stage but also one that makes it difficult to write about. Saturday saw Haula perform a very well attended set, complete with enthusiastic audience participation. 

That is far from being something that can be taken for granted for it requires a almost indefinable empathy between artist and audience. Very well known artists can have epic fails with this kind of thing and yet she made it seem natural therefore oh-so-easy. Her heritage is Ugandan but Wales is now where she calls home.

Finally although it is actually from late Friday come the small, for it is a trio, but very determined crew of HMS Morris.

Heledd Watkins on guitar and lead vocals.

This is pop music, but not quite as you expected it. Another of the wonderful discoveries of last weekend. Some of this was sung in Welsh. 

The best discovery since the weekend is that Gwenno is indeed playing Green Man 2015. Result!

Truck Festival 2015 - Palm City Stage

It is only a few days since I posted the artist list for The Saloon Stage at Truck Festival 2015 and started to comment on it. There is plenty more about that to come, even in the three weeks before the event!
In what has in many ways been a rather dismal week, nothing good in the news, more generally the music side is keeping me sane. I do wonder if, instead of M. Hollande and others amongst 'the great and good', the NSA has taken to snooping on me instead because soft targets are easier to go for after all. Here's how it plays out; the results are impressive [announcements] when it comes to festival line-ups and particularly the ones that I am going to. Please keep up the good work!

Today Truck Festival announced a new stage and one that will make my plans for that festival even more problematic. It is 'The Palm City Stage' and its logo seems to be flamingos and tropical vegetation. It is, despite that and I have no problem there, dedicated to music from Wales and that is a big part of the problem for me. It is no secret that I could spend much of Truck Festival in the Saloon Stage (roots and Americana from both sides of the Atlantic).
It is also no secret that I have long had a soft spot for music from Wales, sung in either Welsh or English, for reasons that I have never really been able to identify, let alone explain.
There will be a lot more from me about this list. 

The first is to mention an astonishing trans-lingual pun. The music can wait, just for once.

If HMS Morris sounds like a rather off-kilter band name, and to be fair it does, then perhaps you should see this from Glastonbury 2015 [strong language warning].