I was just thinking that an Americana album sung entirely in Welsh was something of a novelty when it occurred to me that it wasn’t really that big a deal. In fact, I doubt that Cowbois Rhos Botwnnog, with their new album “Dyddiau Du, Dyddiau Gwyn” are the only genre practitioners in Wales.
Nevertheless, this is a convincing album and provides a degree of (non scientific) evidence that Gram Parsons once trekked over the Welsh hills and valleys even if it did seem at times that Bono must have been following close behind. Despite an almost complete lack of knowledge of the Welsh language, it didn’t take long to get into this album. The sonic familiarity brought by Euron Jones’ pedal steel helped, of course, but the main selling point to me was the intense, and often laconic, voice of Iwan Hughes that exuded the world weary melancholy necessary to sell these songs with the peak of excellence being reached on “Os Ti’n Dod Nôl”. Americana is a genre that often trips over its own insignificance but not here as Cowbois Rhos Botwnnog go large at every opportunity and I felt the urge to wave my lighter in the air on many an occasion whilst listening to this album.
I’ll give the band credit too for steadfastly resisting the commercial common sense of including a song in English or even providing an English translation for the lyrics. No matter, for passion is universal and something that you can’t fake. Cowbois Rhos Botwnnog have put that into this album.