Kansas Snapshots by Gloria Freeland - June 21, 2024

Our musical meanderings

When we arranged our vacation stay in North Wales, we didn't have any particular "agenda." The only plans were welcoming husband Art's cousin Kris for a two-week visit in late April/early May and our German "son" Tim and his family for a four-day mini-vacation in early June.

But over time, we seem to always be drawn to live music.

In Southwest Wales, we went to two concerts in St. Davids Cathedral, a beautiful church with a 12th-century nave covered by an Irish oak ceiling.

Our favorite music experience has been the Fron Male Voice Choir. We've been to so many Monday and Thursday practices that the president of the group quipped we've attended more rehearsals than some of its members! We now refer to ourselves as the choir's "groupies."

Our two other musical encounters can best be described as, ... well, I'm not sure.

We were alerted to the first about mid-May, when we began seeing Welsh dragon flags and white, red, and green banners appearing on homes, fences and almost anything else that would support them. Soon "Mr. Urdd" (erth) began to appear as well. He's sort of a triangle-shaped version of Mr. Potato Head, also in white, red, and green. Many of these figures and posters had been made by youngsters, judging by the work techniques.

The flags and figures were promotions for the Urdd National Eisteddfod in Meifod (my-vod) - a village just a few miles from where we were staying. The Eisteddfod (eye-steth-vaud) is an annual Welsh-language festival of literature, music, and performing arts involving dozens of schools and hundreds of students from across Wales. The word loosely translates into "sitting-together."

With it being practically in our back yard, we decided to attend the Friday session of the week-long event. We were amazed by the size of the venue, which was spread across a farm field. It included three large pavilions - one white, one red, and one green - as well as small rehearsal tents, food carts, sponsors' booths, carnival rides, and much more. A great deal of it was televised live. It was estimated to bring in 90,000 visitors and 6 million pounds - about $7.5 million dollars - to the local economy.

We spent hours in the white pavilion, listening to vocal and instrumental ensembles, choirs, duets, trios, and folk dance music. All of the performers had been vetted in regional competitions. Everything was in Welsh, so we had no clue what the songs were about. Still, it was fun to watch the children sing, play instruments, and dance.

Our other music experience was even more of a surprise. Friends Paul and Debi had invited us to a pub where they perform on occasion, he on the guitar and she on vocals. We invited our friend Jan along, assuming we’d get there a bit early and have a pub meal.

Just getting to "The Boat" was a bit of an adventure. It sits at the end of a road that hugs the River Severn. That hugging business means it has flooded repeatedly, and various high-water levels and their related dates were painted on an outside door.

When we walked inside, we were surprised how small it was - perhaps 150 square feet with only four people plus the bar tender. Looking at the photos in the framed newspaper articles about the floods, we could see that Mario, the bartender, was also the landlord.

Art chose a table in the corner at the end of the room while Jan and I checked out the food. That didn't take long. There was no food ... unless you count bags of crisps - "chips" to us Americans.

Soon Phil appeared with a guitar case.

"Are you performing tonight?" he asked.

Uh-oh! What had we gotten ourselves into?

Before long, several others arrived, including Paul and Debi. At about 8 p.m., the performances began, moving counterclockwise around the room. There was poetry, a capella singing, and songs accompanied by guitars. Dave played both guitar and harmonica for some of his numbers. The group graciously allowed us to take a pass, but we did join in on singing "Fire and Rain," "You Are My Sunshine," "Top of the World," and World War I marching song "Pack Up Your Troubles in Your Old Kit-Bag, and Smile, Smile, Smile." Phil sang two songs he wrote, "Welcome to 'The Boat'" and "In My Imagination."

Somewhere in the middle, a couple came in with their son. They had drinks, but couldn't hide a "what-is-this-all-about?" look.

Art said the variety reminded him of what might have happened in Greenwich Village in the 1970s.

Debi summed up the night well: "The Boat is a pretty unique place. I think most people there march to the beat of a different drum. Feels like home to us."

As the night wound down, Paul and Debi had a surprise. She works with stained glass and she had made a beautiful Welsh dragon for us. We were most impressed!

But the surprises weren't over! As we were taking Jan home, we discovered the motorway was being worked on and we were detoured into the countryside. Not knowing whether the diversion would take us past her place, we started our own "seek and find," using a bit of guidance from the car's GPS and some from Jan's knowledge of the area. I felt a bit uneasy when Jan kept saying, "Things sure look different at night, don’t they?"

Then Art discovered he had set the GPS for our place rather than Jan's, so it was little wonder we seemed to be wandering a bit aimlessly.

But a bit after 1 a.m., we reached our place. It had been an interesting conclusion to our musical meanderings!