Looking for Welsh mining songs (in English)

[sianb]

  Gareth (and ozlady) - aaaagh, I can't believe I'd forgotten Max Boyce's songs, I even used to sing Duw it's hard and Rhondda Grey years ago - I've got 3 of his l.p's (vinyl) !!! Getting senile (too many years singing folk songs - I still do it Bob!!)
I do sing songs in Welsh, but live in Yorkshire and the lyrics sometimes get lost in translation.

Thanks for all those links Gnu. I'll go and look on them now. I love Myfanwy and we used to sing the Gresford Disaster at school - my mining ancstors in N.Wales were  copper miners.

I think the dearth of older songs says a lot about the grip that the mining families had on their workers, the politics of the day and chapel choral harmony singing had on Wales in the 1800's. ( I also have an ancestor who was instrumental in bringing Wesleyanism to Wales in the Welsh language)

I've come across songs about shepherds, drovers, soldiers, farming and lots of love songs in one form or another - a variety of animals have folk songs written about them and there are lots of sea-faring songs. Perhaps the Welsh just wanted to forget about the day job and sing about other things?

I'll keep on looking for that A.L.Lloyd book and I've just thought that maybe Huw Williams might have written something.

Thanks to all. The search continues . . .


Sian

[Gadget]

Sian 

Join the list of ex-pats    When I looked at that last list, I  remembered singing Dafydd y Gareg Wen so many times in the choir at school 

I noticed Ar Lan y Mor as well. This was another one that Max Boyce sang in his more gentle moods. What happened to him?

gnu

[hiraeth]

Sounds like Max is still going strong!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Max_Boyce

[sianb]

Max Boyce is still going strong. My mother was down in S.Wales at Easter and saw him in concert one evening. Said he was just as good as ever. Funny, poignant. Thoroughly enjoyed the evening.

Sian

[jowen]

In the late 1970s early 1980s Walter Hayden Davies produced  a tape called "Mining Songs and Ballads" which was a compilation of English language mining songs from South wales dating from around the turn of the 19th 20th centuries. I have a copy but you could try ebay or the like
.Jowen

[sianb]

Thanks jowen. I'll try googling it and see what comes up.

Sian

just tried it under his name and the title of the cassette and seperately, but google comes up with no matches. Was it produced by a recording company or privately?

Sian

[little meg]

my mum was born in Wales and her father was a miner in the Rhondda Valley.
Sadly the only thing that was passed on to me with any kind of verse was:

"Taffy was a welshman , Taffy was a thief......'

 

Margaret

[jowen]

I think it was by a small private company. I won`t promise but when I find my copy i`ll try and get my son to copy it onto CD.
John Owen

[sianb]

Thanks jowen. If you can find it I'd be quite happy to get in touch with the company and see if they have any left., or try to get in touch with Walter Hayden Davies directly and see if he or any of his family have any copies. Wouldn't wish to infringe his copyright.

Sian