Y Lolfa has published a new edition of its bestselling guide book to the must see places in Wales.

Wales in 100 Places is the updated version of Wales 100 places to see before you die which won the Welsh Book of the Year prize and was adapted to a popular television series on S4C. The publishing of the new version of the acclaimed volume follows the death of author and historian John Davies in 2015.

Wales in 100 Places combines words and pictures from two leading authorities in their fields; the late historian John Davies shares his remarkable depth of knowledge of the history of Wales; the photographer Marian Delyth travelled the length of the country in all weathers to create the magical atmosphere of the hundred places observed.

From Anglesey to Monmouthshire, from Pembrokeshire to Flintshire, these are a hundred places that we should visit in our lifetime.

‘During my travels, I came to realize how fortunate we are in Wales. Our country contains an astonishing range of examples of the fruits of human efforts’ said John Davies during the first publication, ‘Citizens of the larger nations of Europe cannot hope in the span of a single lifetime to visit all the highlights of their country’s heritage. But Welsh residents and visitors to Wales can, by the time they reach three score years and ten, visit, appreciate and love all its glories.’

‘The constantly changing light on the varied landscape of such a small country, and the wealth of histories and characters within our wonderful communities never cease to excite me’ added Marian Delyth, ‘I hope that the photographs in some small way reflect those particular qualities.’

John Davies (1938 - 2015) was a native of the Rhondda and was a presenter of the popular History Hunters TV series. In 2015 Y Lolfa published his autobiography A Life in History, translated from Welsh by Jon Gower. He received the Glyndŵr Award for Outstanding Contribution to the Arts in in Wales in 2015 and was described as “one of the most influential Welshmen of our era” by Prof Richard Wyn Jones.

Marian Delyth is a freelance graphic designer and photographer working from her studio near Aberystwyth. She has worked primarily for the publishing industry in Wales and has won many awards incuding the Tir na n-Og prize for best children's book on two occasions. She has worked on many collaborations with writers and poets and now devotes most of her life to her photographic work and shares her enthusiasm and knowledge in workshops and lectures. A prominent campaigner in the promotion of Art in Wales, she was a founder member of Ffotogallery and Gweled. She has exhibited her work in Wales and internationally.

Wales in 100 Places by John Davies and Marian Delyth (£19.99, Y Lolfa) is available now.

We are happy to announce that we have recieved the following adjudication from our judge Mike Jenkins . Diolch Mike and congratulations to our winner Branden Kang.

It's January Sale Time!!

Not ready to take a Welsh language course yet? Why not learn some Welsh at your own pace with our selection of Welsh language course books. 10% off till the end of January!

We also have books on Welsh recipes, songs, hymns, history and more. Click the pic below or HERE to browse our titles.

Blwyddyn Newydd Dda!

Dylan & Llinos Rowlands

A Welsh cookbook by two local Welsh entrepreneurs has won a prestigious French cookbook award.

Rarebit and Rioja: Recipes and wine tales from Wales  by Dylan and Llinos Rowlands of Gwin Dylanwad Wine, Dolgellau, has been declared the national British winner in its category, Best Food and Wine at the 2017 Gourmand Awards. The Welsh food and wine book stems from the two entrepreneurs’ 30 years experience in the trade.

The Gourmand World Cookbook Awards were founded in 1995 by Edouard Cointreau. Every year, they honour the best food and wine books, printed or digital, as well as food and cookery television programmes. Books from over two hundred countries participate in these prestigious awards, the only international competition of the sector.

This most recent success for Dylan and Llinos Rowlands follows previous accolades from renowned wine guru Hugh Johnson – who praised the wine shop and cafe-bar as a ‘Great little wine merchant in Dolgellau’ and wine writer Nevill Bletch who commended the bar as ‘one of the best places you can drink real quality at a reasonable price’.

Rarebit and Rioja is much more than just a recipe book with its entertaining and sometimes touching tales of journeys of discovery in the wine world from Spain to Armenia. It contains recipes, with some of the best Welsh ingredients from Canapés and Tapas, to Main Courses and Desserts which are accompanied by wine recommendations. The book is very much a wine book too and discusses how to make the most of tasting wine; what makes a good wine and the characteristics of various grapes. It ends with menu suggestions for special meals as well as a list of Welsh producers.

Dylan is a regular guest on S4C daytime magazine show Prynhawn Da as their wine expert and Llinos writes regular articles on food and wine. They host tastings in their beautifully renovated 16th century building in Dolgellau, which now includes upstairs tasting rooms where customers can relax and enjoy the wide variety of wines from the cellar shop that Dylan has travelled far and wide to source – from Italy and France to Moldova, in addition to the quality wines Welsh vineyards are now producing.

Commenting on the book upon its release in 2016, BBC Radio 1 DJ, Huw Stephens said: ‘As this success story grows, so too does its physical home, marking a new era for this proud Welsh institution. This book is a celebration of the story so far, and of the future and all that it holds.’

The annual Gourmand Awards ceremony will be held in Yantai, China during the 27 ^th and 28 ^th of May 2017 where Dylan and Llinos will be competing in their winning category against winners from other countries for the Best in the World .

Dylan and Llinos said, ‘Winning the British category of this prestigious award is very exciting. The feedback we have had about the book has been so positive, people really love the combination.’

‘We’re already visiting producers in Bordeaux and Rioja in February and March so we don’t think we can manage China in May for the awards but the prospect of now competing for the world’s best food and wine book is thrilling!’ they added.

Rarebit and Rioja – Recipes and Wine Tales from Wales by Dylan and Llinos Rowlands (£14.99, Y Lolfa) is available now.

Conor Gaffney

AmeriCymru:  Hi Conor and many thanks for agreeing to this interview. You are a guitarist and vocalist with Glasgow band Anchor Lane. Care to tell us a little about the band?

Conor:   Hi, thanks for inviting me. Yeah I am, we are a heavy rock band. We are currently preparing to release our debut ep in February having already released our single 'Finished for Twelve' this month. We have been playing together for about a year and a half. Well, I say that but we got a new drummer in June 2016. So as the current outfit we've been together for six months. We have some awesome shows organised for this year already including two EP release shows one in Audio, Glasgow and one in the Dreadnought, Bathgate. Our show in Bathgate we are really excited for, we haven't played there before and also we have a great band from Wales called Kane'd coming up to support us. We played with Kane'd in September 2016 supporting Kee Marcello, former guitarist of Europe. Kane'd were on tour with him and they were awesome people, we all really hit it off and when we saw them play we knew we had to play with them again! The date for our EP has yet to be released so like our Facebook page to keep up to date!

AmeriCymru:  When did you first decide that music would be your future. What is your musical background?

Conor:   Good question! I think I was around ten or eleven when I decided I wanted to be a musician. It was when I listened to 'American Idiot' by Green Day. That was the first album I ever bought, first of many haha! I loved the energy and passion in the music, the lyrics. A lot of people say that 'Dookie' is their best album which is fair enough, however I would disagree. As much as it's a good album it for me, it doesn't evoke the same passion and raw emotion that 'American Idiot' does. As you can tell Green Day have been a big influence on me. I grew up with music, pretty much every second person in my family plays an instrument, sings or both! Family parties would involve having a drink, food and then taking out the guitars and having a sing song together. My Dad and older brother Kevin leading the session quite often. As you can imagine it was my Dad that got me into playing guitar and singing. My Dad has an awesome singing voice, he used to play in bands but it was a different time and just didn't have the opportunities that I have had. I think that's part of the reason why he and my Mum are so supportive.

AmeriCymru:  You recently collaborated with Gwenno Dafydd and Katherine Cole on their 'Don't Give Up Hoping Hannah' single. Care to tell us a little about that experience?

Conor:  Yeah that was a fun project to be a part of. Katherine put up a post in the Scotland is alive with music group page on Facebook. She said she was looking for a male rock/folk vocalist. I'd always wanted to try singing for someone else and so I sent my stuff over to Katherine. She got back to me later that week asking me to send her a rough demo of the song. After I sent the rough demo over she got back to me about two weeks later. She told me they wanted me to sing the song so I got myself booked into the studio. It was about this time that Gwenno got in contact with me. She sent me a message asking if she could speak over the phone to tell me the background of the song. I appreciated her doing this because I like to know exactly what I'm singing about. I love that she wrote the song in response to the heartbreak she witnessed after the votes were counted.

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AmeriCymru:  What attracted you to this project? Do you think there will be an indyref2?

Conor:  I liked the patriotism of the song. Like I said when I shared this song on my Facebook, politics aside this is a patriotic song. That's what drew me to it, I'm a patriotic guy. I love Scotland and I'm proud to be Scottish, it's my home. I'm not sure if there will be another independence referendum. I'd like there to be one as I feel a lot of 'no' voters were persuaded by lies. Sadly these lies were found out when the votes had been cast.

AmeriCymru:  Who are your favourite bands currently on the Scottish/UK music scene?

Conor:   Oh, there are a lot of great bands around the Glasgow scene at the moment. My favourite would definitely have to be the boys in Mason Hill. They're a heavy/hard rock band much like Anchor Lane but they've got their own unique style within rock the same as us. They have a classic but modern rock sound that just gets your head banging! Their singer Scott has one of the best live voices I have heard. The dude literally blew me away! The rest of the band are amazing as well though, don't get me wrong! James and Marc on the guitar duties drive the riffs with intensity and both have great tone! Matthew their bassist and Craig their drummer are about as tight as they come. Matthew unapologetically rocks out on stage and shows no mercy for his hair as he whips it everywhere! Craig is a tight drummer who smacks the kit like nothing else, I don't know much about drumming but if they're loud and tight they do well by me! I saw them live for he first time in the Dreadnought at their headline show. Having been a fan of them for about a year and met them at other people's gigs. They're awesome guys, me and my band mates Jack and Matthew got along very well with them at Dreadnought. I've mentioned them already but Kane'd have got to be one of the best bands on the UK circuit right now. They're a seven piece band which is awesome! Three singers all sisters Stacey, Chez and Stephanie. Backed by four awesome musicians Harry Scott Elliot their guitarist is among the four best guitar players I have seen. The dude is extremely talented! He was on that Sky Arts show 'Guitar Star' definitely check him out on YouTube. Another band that I would say are great is Edenthorn, a rock band from Newcastle that Anchor Lane played with in The Bungalow, Paisley. Their singer Kyle was again, another singer that totally blew me away. We're hoping to be playing with these guys and girl again this year! They've got a great Foo Fighters/Pearl Jam feel while bringing their own unique flair to it! Definitely one to watch!

AmeriCymru:  Who would you consider your major musical influences?

Conor:  Wow, everyone and anyone I've ever listened to really! I have so much influences it's unbelievable. If I were to narrow the list down to the biggest ones I'd need to start with Freddie Mercury and Queen. I just love them! I wouldn't say the music I write is much like their but I definitely have a massive love and respect for Queen. They just knew how to write songs everyone would love! Another influence would have to be bands like Alter Bridge Black Stone Cherry and Foo Fighters, bands that taught me you can have clean vocals with heavy guitar riffs. Obviously I have to mention 'The Boss' Bruce Springsteen. The man is just an amazing song writer, he tells such amazing stories and has had an amazing career. I saw him play Hampden, he plays for like two and a half to three hours. Just him. You compare that work ethic and devotion to fans with artists half his age who play hour to hour and a half sets, you see Brucey is just different class.

AmeriCymru:  Any new gigs/recordings in the pipeline?

Conor:  As I mentioned we have our EP releasing in February and an two awesome EP shows in March as well as supporting the legendary Manny Charlton, founding member of Nazareth. Both my Dad and Scott our drummers Dad were buzzing about that show as they're both big Nazareth fans. We have also been booked for an awesome festival date this summer - The Wildfire Festival .  We are totally fired up to be playing this festival! We also have a show in Audio with Fahran on the 1st of April. We're really excited for this show!

AmeriCymru:  Any final message for the members and readers of AmeriCymru?

Conor:  Thank you for checking out the interview and I hope you enjoy the song! Don't give up hoping!

Details of next years competitions will be announced shortly and we hope that all our 2016 entrants will consider competing again in the new year. We will be contacting the winners and runners up of the poetry and short story competitions via email shortly.

S'mae pawb. We are pleased to announce that we are introducing a new feature for 2017!! This should appeal to musicians and Welsh music fans. 'Pay per Stream' will allow us to reward artists for 'plays' on the site and encourage a new audience to discover traditional and contemporary Welsh music. The overview below goes some way to explain how it works from an admin point of view:-

Overview

• The Profile Stream Pay module allows you to "pay" a profile when a viewer streams a video or listens to an audio item on a profile. Configurable on a per quota and per item basis.

• This allows the site to credit profile owners for views to their content. When a video or audio file is streamed the admin user can set an amount in cents to credit the profile owner with.

• The admin user also sets the timeout length that needs to elapse between when one visitor views a piece of content and then re-views it that counts as a credit to the profile. By default this period is 7 days, but you can set it to whatever you want.

If you are interested in helping us trial this new feature (and earning some money and exposure in the process ) please email americymru@gmail.com NOW or contact us via your AmeriCymru site profile.

S ian Richards is a Singer/Songwriter/Artist based in Swansea, south Wales. She has recorded a number of tracks which are available to download from sites such as iTunes, Spotify, Amazon, AmeriCymru and many more. She has an English 5 track EP called “where do we go from here” plus a recent single called “Easy to hang” She also have three welsh singles, my most recent Being “Torri”. Visit Sian's website here . AmeriCymru spoke to Sian about her latest album Circles and her future plans.

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AmeriCymru: Hi Sian and many thanks for agreeing to this interview. How would you describe your music?

Sian:  That's a hard question because I can't really compare myself to any one artist or any specific genre of music as I like to write different types of music and as I'm writing my songs I can tell when I'm about half way through the song whether it's going to be a country song or a pop song etc so overall I would just describe my music as alternative.

AmeriCymru: Recently you were 'BBC introducing Wales artist of the week'. Care to tell us a little about this experience?

Sian:  It was an amazing experience because I didn't think that my music would have such an impact and then to be chosen as artist of the week was just amazing, I couldn't be happier and more grateful to BBC Radio Wales for choosing me.

AmeriCymru: Do you perform in both Cymraeg and English?

Sian:  Yes I write and perform in both english and welsh and I have already got some of my welsh songs out there which I am lucky enough to say that they are being played regularly on BBC Radio Cymru, and if anyone is interested in looking them up they are called Tywyllwch Ddu, Hunllef, Torri and my new single which will be out on the 3,10,16 called Welai di eto. It's nice to know that people like my welsh music as well as my english music because I would like to try and get the welsh music recognised in more places.

AmeriCymru: Any plans to perform in the States?

Sian:  Currently I don't have any plans to perform in the states, at least not any time soon but I would definitely love to play in the states at some point in the future.

AmeriCymru: What is your current single. Where can people go to hear/buy your music?

Sian:  My new single Circles will be out on the 3/10/16 and it will be available to download from Horus Music, HMV digital, iTunes as well as my new welsh single Welai di eto which will be released on the same date.

AmeriCymru: What are your future recording and performance plans at the moment?

Sian:  I am currently in the process of recording my first 12 track album called Borderline which will hopefully be out sometime before Christmas and I have also got some gigs coming up which people can find out more about on my website and my other music pages such as Facebook, Reverbnation or on here.

AmeriCymru: What are your dreams and ambitions for the future?

Sian:  In the future I would definitely like to play in other places around the world and also play at bigger festivals to bigger audiences and I would also like to write music for TV and film if it's possible.

AmeriCymru: Any final message for the readers and members of AmeriCymru?

Sian:  I will let you know when album is being released and I hope that you will enjoy it and share it with family and friends. Also if you have any questions please feel free to contact me on my website or other music pages.