Growing up in Wales, Liz Puleston-Jones was familiar with the country’s rich heritage of storytelling and traditional music, but none of it ever seemed to have much of a connection to her life in Swansea. Researching the history of the area as part of Cân y Cymoedd (When Valleys Sing), a project in nearby Port Talbot, she came across the story of Isabel Thomas, a 14-year-old girl in the 1940s who left school and lied about her age to work in a tin plate works to support her family. Anyone can be part of a tune, and write a tune, and share it.” Thomas’s story has now been celebrated in song form as part of the project from Wales’s national folk arts organisation, Trac Cymru.
At Cân y Cymoedd community and school workshops, musicians, historians and volunteers have helped each group uncover stories at local heritage sites and museums, and channelled their findings into the creation of two dozen new compositions about local life in Rhondda Cynon Taf and Neath Port Talbot. For many participants, the workshops have rekindled a sense of cultural pride and belonging in the community. Jenny Pope, who took part in the sessions in Port Talbot, said: “For me, it made the Port Talbot area feel like a real beacon of folk music – somewhere people might once have just driven past but now feels full of life and culture.
Creating something we can pass on to the next generation has been amazing.” Puleston-Jones added: “I was terrified at the idea of having to write or produce something on my own but it was a collaborative experience. Now instead of watching rubbish TV or doomscrolling I’m being drawn to songwriting and playing my violin after years and years. It feels much healthier.” At Llwyncelyn primary school in Porth, in the Rhondda valley, a year 6 class has been busy learning the song about their village composed by last year’s cohort with the help of a fiddle player, Aneirin Jones, before recording a music video at Rhondda Heritage Park, a former colliery.
Their song, Ein Cân Fach Ni (Our Little Song), references the area’s mountains, mines and chapels, as well as the activities and places that make up the children’s day-to-day lives, such as the recycling centre and the playground. Ifan, 10, said: “I knew Cwm Rhondda before but I didn’t really know anything else about folk music before this, it’s been really fun. My sister is annoyed because her class wrote the song but my class is going to make the video!” The original songs are being professionally recorded for an album Trac Cymru hopes will be accessible to a wider audience and become a resource for future generations.
The project manager, Antwn Owen-Hicks, said: “Cân y Cymoedd is about making sure that traditions continue to evolve. Magic happens when people explore all of this and begin to see where they’re from in a different light. It doesn’t matter what musical level you’re at or what language you speak.
If you’ve got a story, you can write a song, and we help you do this.”
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