Jamie Smith's Mabon were a

Welsh Welsh may refer to: Related to Wales * Welsh, referring or related to Wales * Welsh language, a Brittonic Celtic language spoken in Wales * Welsh people People * Welsh (surname) * Sometimes used as a synonym for the ancient Britons (Celtic peop ...

folk band renowned for their live performances and their seven

album An album is a collection of audio recordings issued on compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl, audio tape, or another medium such as Digital distribution#Music, digital distribution. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early ...

s released between 2001 and 2018. Founded in 1998, the band disbanded in 2020.

History

Founded as 'Mabon' in 1998, the group initially predominantly played Welsh folk tunes, but they soon emerged to develop a more contemporary sound, calling on wide-ranging influences reaching far beyond the traditional canon. Starting with ''Lumps of Mabon'' in 2001, the group released four albums as 'Mabon' before re-branding as 'Jamie Smith's Mabon' in 2011. After the next two albums, ''Windblown'' (2012) and ''The Space Between'' (2015), with winning the 'Best Group' in the 2014 Spiral Earth Awards and the 2015 Eiserner Eversteiner Award in between, the group marked their 20th anniversary in 2019 with a live album and a worldwide tour. Renowned for their live performances, Jamie Smith's Mabon took on many world tours and performed well over 1,000 gigs in four continents by 2018 alone. Notable festivals the group have performed at include: Festival Interceltique de Lorient (2010, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2016, 2018); Celtic Connections (2011, 2015, 2019); the Rain Forest World Music Festival in

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(being the first Welsh band to perform here); WOMAD UK (2011 and 2017); WOMAD Australia (2019); WOMAD New Zealand; Musicport Festival (2017); Cambridge Folk Festival (2013 and 2017); Sidmouth Folkweek (2017);

National Eisteddfod of Wales The National Eisteddfod of Wales (Welsh language, Welsh: ') is the largest of several eisteddfodau that are held annually, mostly in Wales. Its eight days of competitions and performances are considered the largest music and poetry festival in Eur ...

(2019); Fairport's Cropredy Convention (2011) and Cwlwm Celtaidd (2016). Musicians who have recorded, performed or collaborated with Jamie Smith's Mabon include: Tomas Callister, Callum Stewart, Adam Rhodes, Dylan Fowler, Will Lang The group announced their amicable disbanding with a farewell tour for autumn 2020. Although the final date of the tour was planned to be in June 2020,

coronavirus Coronaviruses are a group of related RNA viruses that cause diseases in mammals and birds. In humans and birds, they cause respiratory tract infections that can range from mild to lethal. Mild illnesses in humans include some cases of the com ...

cut the tour months short.

Musical style

Jamie Smith's Mabon predominantly performed purely instrumental music, although they also had many songs with vocals. Nearly all of their music was their own composition, predominantly created by Jamie Smith and reflecting their varied interests and influences based in traditional or contemporary

Celtic music Celtic music is a broad grouping of music genres that evolved out of the folk music traditions of the Celtic people of Northwestern Europe. It refers to both orally-transmitted traditional music and recorded music and the styles vary considerab ...

, but also reaching into world music and beyond. Their ability to seamlessly blur "the boundaries between the heritage of a traditional Celtic legacy and a more contemporary sound" has been noted, as has their "wide dynamic range, from quiet, reflective melodies and songs to loud and exciting music." Amongst the latter are tunes such as "The Accordionist's Despair", an incredibly difficult piece, described as "... an unholy union of Bach and

Metallica Metallica is an American heavy metal band. The band was formed in 1981 in Los Angeles by vocalist/guitarist James Hetfield and drummer Lars Ulrich, and has been based in San Francisco for most of its career. The band's fast tempos, instrume ...

." At the time of the release of ''Windblown'' in 2017, folk radio said, "One of the attractions of Mabon’s music is its untethered nature: traditionally inspired but all original. Rather than create boundaries and confines to work within they also take influences from other folk traditions and beyond."

Band members

* Jamie Smith –

accordion Accordions (from 19th-century German ''Akkordeon'', from ''Akkord''—"musical chord, concord of sounds") are a family of box-shaped musical instruments of the bellows-driven free-reed aerophone type (producing sound as air flows past a reed ...

and vocals * Oli Wilson-Dickson –

fiddle A fiddle is a bowed string musical instrument, most often a violin. It is a colloquial term for the violin, used by players in all genres, including classical music. Although in many cases violins and fiddles are essentially synonymous, th ...

* Paul Rogers –

guitar The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected stri ...

* Matt Downer –

bass Bass or Basses may refer to: Fish * Bass (fish), various saltwater and freshwater species Music * Bass (sound), describing low-frequency sound or one of several instruments in the bass range: ** Bass (instrument), including: ** Acoustic bass gui ...

* Iolo Whelan –

drums A drum kit (also called a drum set, trap set, or simply drums) is a collection of drums, cymbals, and other Percussion instrument, auxiliary percussion instruments set up to be played by one person. The player (drummer) typically holds a pair o ...

and

percussion A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a beater including attached or enclosed beaters or rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or struck against another similar instrument. Exc ...

Previous members: Derek Smith (guitar), Gareth Whelan (fiddle), Jason Rogers (bass guitar), David Killgallon (fiddle),

Calum Stewart Calum Stewart (born 1982) is an uilleann piper, low whistle and wooden flute player and composer from Garmouth in Scotland, who performs primarily traditional Scottish, Irish and Breton music. Career Brought up in a musical household, Calum St ...

(flute, uilleann pipes), Ruth Angell (fiddle), Tomas Callister (fiddle), Adam Rhodes ( bouzouki), and Ronald Jappy (guitar).

Discography

* ''Lumps of Mabon'' (2001) * ''Ridiculous Thinkers'' (2004) * ''OK Pewter'' (2007) * ''Live at the Grand Pavilion'' (2010) * ''Windblown'' (2012) * ''The Space Between'' (2015) * ''Twenty - Live!'' (2018)

Related ensembles

Jamie Smith's Mabon members have performed with other ensembles, including: * Barrule *

Ímar Ímar ( non, Ívarr ; died c. 873), who may be synonymous with Ivar the Boneless, was a Viking leader in Ireland and Scotland in the mid-late ninth century who founded the Uí Ímair dynasty, and whose descendants would go on to dominate the Iri ...

* Scran * Alaw * Skeeal

References

{{Reflist

External links

Official website
Welsh folk musicians Welsh-language bands British indie folk groups British folk rock groups Musical groups established in 1998 Musical groups disestablished in 2020 Manx musical groups