Cornish folk band search - Gwaoryon?

Subject: Cornish folk band search - Gwaoryon?
From: GUEST,Little Weed
Date: 05 Dec 07 - 06:38 AM

I have an album on cassette which a friend taped for me back in the 1990s of a Cornish band called (as he wrote it down) Gwaoryon. Has anyone ever heard of them? A Google search yields zilch, so I'm assuming my friend either got their name wrong or the band folded pretty early. I think he saw them play live at a pub in Newcastle upon Tyne, and bought the tape off them then.

The album (which I don't have a title for, unfortunately) has a mix of songs (including The Streams Of Lovely Nancy, The Sweet Nightingale, Kitty Jay - not the Seth Lakeman song but a completely different tune and lyrics - and The Cornish Mines Are Dying) and instrumental tracks. There's at least one male singer and two female ones I think, and instruments on the album include flute, penny whistle, guitar, hurdy gurdy and drum/bodhran. The nearest I can describe the sound to is Blowzabella. It's a great album and I'd really like to find a better copy of it if possible. Has anyone out there come across this group or the album itself? Am I just looking under the wrong name? I wondered if Gwaoryon was a Cornish word, and if perhaps my friend had misheard it or written it down wrong.

Thanks for any helpful responses!    :o)

Subject: RE: Cornish folk band search - Gwaoryon?
From: GUEST,Bobby Bob, Ellan Vannin
Date: 05 Dec 07 - 08:33 AM

The group was called Gwaryoryon, which means 'Players' in Cornish. There used to be four of them, with clarinet, sax and pipes, hurdy-gurdy and fiddle, as well as the singing, though they became a threesome without the hurdy-gurdy after a bit.

Hilary Coleman played the clarinet. She's played with a number of Cornish bands, including Sowena, and now plays with a band called Dalla with her partner, Neil Davey.

You may remember Neil Davey many, many years ago as the youngest of four brothers in a Cornish band called Bucca who recorded an album for the Plant Life label. More recently, he introduced Cornish music (including his own compositions) into the Irish/Scottish band, Anam.

Hilary's brother, Will, played sax and the gaitas (Galician bagpipe) with Gwaryoryon.

Embarrassingly enough, I can't bring to mind the names of the other two. However, a useful starting point for things Cornish is -

http://www.an-daras.com/

No doubt if you Google for Gwaryoryon, Sowena or Dalla you'll find something too.


Lhiats,

Bobby Bob

Subject: RE: Cornish folk band search - Gwaoryon?
From: GUEST,Bobby Bob, Ellan Vannin
Date: 05 Dec 07 - 08:34 AM

I forgot to say, I have a copy of the cassette, so I'll have a look tonight and refresh my mind of the details, unless someone posts in the meantime.

Lhiats,

Bobby Bob

Subject: RE: Cornish folk band search - Gwaoryon?
From: Cats
Date: 05 Dec 07 - 12:53 PM

If you go to you tube there is a video of the band at Lowender Peran.

Subject: RE: Cornish folk band search - Gwaoryon?
From: GUEST,Bobby Bob, Ellan Vannin
Date: 06 Dec 07 - 06:40 PM

The information about the tape you have is as follows:

It's just called Gwaryoryon

Recorded at Pyramid and Proper Job Mixing Co.
Engineered and Edited By Nice Chaps
A YERTIZ Production, Yertiz Tapes, 001 GWN
Copyright Tamar Troylers International 1988

(A Troyl is a Cornish ceili)

Hilary Coleman: clarinet, voice, crowdy-crawn and other percussion
Will Coleman: bag-pipes (gaita gallego), saxophone, tin whistle, voice
Matthew Spring: hurdy-gurdy, guitar, voice
Joanna Tagney: flute, tin whistle, voice, crowdy-crawn and other percussion

Track Listing:

Side A
1. Jay's Grave (G & M Spring) / Pencarrow (Trad) / Song of the Squire (Trad) / We En't Goin' Far (W Coleman)

2. Sweet Nightingale (Trad)

3. The Newlyn Reel (Trad)

4. The Cornish Miners (G & M Spring)

Side B
1. Tinner's Fancy (Trad)

2. The Streams of Lovely Nancy (Trad)

3. The St Just Cock Dance (Trad)

4. Reb an Awan / Constantine / The Lark (All trad)

5. Sixty-Year Jig (W Coleman)

6. Helston Furry / Newquay Heva / Calstock May Revel (All trad)

There was another cassette under the Gwaryoryon name entitled 'The Three Drunken Maidens', subtitled 'An Exuberant Blend of Old and New Cornish Music'. This was recorded live at Orchard Studios, Cornwall in March 1996, when Gwaryoryon consisted of:

Hilary Coleman: clarinet and voice
Liz Davies: Accordion and voice
Jo Tagney: Flute, violin, crowdy crawn and voice

The cassette had 13 tracks altogether. No label or serial number.

Since then, as mentioned, Hilary has played with other groups. One was the Jack and Jenny Band, which also released cassettes, including one called 'Teeriow Droag', described as being by 'Captain Kernow and the Jack and Jenny Band', with Neil Davey taking time out from other international projects to play with partner Hilary and the others.

A later group called Sowena released a CD, and Dalla have at least two CDs out, which you should be able to find through

, a site run by Kyt Davey, one of Neil's brothers.

I don't have the site address to hand of Mike O'Connor, but it's worth Googling him. He's a fine song writer, singer and musician who's undertaken a lot of work on old manuscripts as well as writing and encouraging others to write some great songs about Cornwall. His URL is, I know, based on the name of Lyngham House.

Mish lesh firrinys,

Bobby Bob

Subject: RE: Cornish folk band search - Gwaoryon?
From: GUEST,Bobby Bob, Ellan Vannin
Date: 06 Dec 07 - 06:44 PM

That last posting was supposed to have two blickies. I'll try again:

Subject: RE: Cornish folk band search - Gwaoryon?
From: GUEST
Date: 06 Dec 07 - 06:49 PM

How irritating!


http://www.an-daras.com/

http://www.kesson.com