AmeriCymru spoke with David, singer/guitarist of Weird Naked Indian (easily one of our favorite bands at the moment)

AmeriCymru: Hi David and many thanks for agreeing to be interviewed by AmeriCymru.....care to tell us a little about your band Weird Naked Indian? When were you formed and how did you come by your name?

David: Weird Naked Indian consists of myself (everything but the drums) and Conor (nothing but the drums). Our name was taken from a character in the film Waynes World one of Conors favourite films but there's also a big link to the band The Doors of which I am a massive fan! Jim Morrison of The Doors was visited by a Native American in his dreams/trances who is kind of looking over him throughout his life. Also it was a fun sounding name and that's what we're all about. Our songs contain a fair bit of humour so we wanted the band name to do so as well. We've been gigging for 3 years now all over Britain but mostly in Port Talbot, Swansea and Cardiff (South Wales) where we're from.

AmeriCymru: Your music has been described as Punk folk-rock. How do you feel about that label? Do you think it is accurate or misleading?

David: Punk folk rock! Well to be honest we're a tricky outfit to label especially with our latest EP throwing a spanner in the works, you see when we play live there's only Conor on drums and myself on acoustic guitar and vocals and so Id say the punk folk rock description is quite apt as our songs have a range picking style folky little numbers that quickly mutate into a driving acoustic rhythmic type affair with solid beats to back it all up and so we do delve into a range of different genres throughout our set.

Now our latest EP blows all that out of the water. We went into the studio looking to create a bigger sound and give the songs more depth as a kind of experiment really to see what we could make of them and so now Id say they'd fit into the indie/rock genre.

AmeriCymru: Your track 'Grass' was recently selected by the BBC for the Wales 'Demo of the Week' program. Care to tell us what inspired it?

David: Grass is pretty much inspired by people who always want what they haven't got i.e. the job, the cash, women, nice cars etc. but then there's other people that would love to be in their shoes! Basically the grass is always greener on the other side. Achieving demo of the week on the BBC was reward for the experiment I mentioned earlier, we wanted to create a big enough sound that would appeal to the radio and did so. As well as winning that title it's getting regular play on Nation Radio , Wales's fastest growing station.

Grass is free to download for a limited time on our SoundCloud page just click on the little arrow above the sound wave.

AmeriCymru: My personal fave on your SoundCloud page is Believe . Care to tell us a little about the background to the track?

David: Yeah we've always had a good response to Believe, first live and now with many saying it's their favourite track on the EP. I wrote the song after our first year of gigging. We gigged pretty hard for the first year and attracted a lot of attention from people who were in the music business who were full of promises and ideas on how to take Weird Naked Indian to the top. However 99.9% of the time these people could barely stand due to over consumption of alcohol! It's amazing how many people turn into record label execs after 5 pints of beer haha. I won't deny it's flattering mind even if they are a bit pissed.

AmeriCymru: Where online can people go to hear/purchase your music?

David: iTunes is probably the easiest place to find our music.

AmeriCymru: What's next for Weird Naked Indian?

David: Next for Weird Naked Indian... First and foremost we are looking to gig some bigger venues hopefully get on some festival line-ups for the summer. We have a project lined up with actor Michael Sheen and National Theatre Wales where we will be providing sound tracks to a passion play that is to take place in Port Talbot over the Easter weekend! We're looking to get back into the studio to record some new material and also get a few music videos done! We have loads of ideas flying around so we just have to nail them down and get cracking. Generally though Weird Naked Indian are feeling positive about 2011 and are looking to keep as busy and productive as possible.

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

David: You can join Weird Naked Indian on Facebook or Myspace to receive updates or get in touch with us.

Duw bendithio America a Gymru

God bless America and Wales

Russell Watson to Headline at This Year's Llangollen Festival

Russell Watson sits forward in his chair and smiles. The thing that I most wanted to achieve has happened. The voice is back. And not only that, but the infrastructure that generates the noise I make, the strength and stamina I need to perform all that incredible material is back. He relaxes, his message delivered. Its been a long road and its been hard work, but were there

The last three years have changed Russell Watson forever. Changed who he is and the way he sings and how he feels about everything. Most people whove had a life-threatening experience will feel the same, and after a while, when the immediate pressure of their illness begins to dissipate, they may slip back into their old ways and their old lives. But not Watson. He has faced down one career-threatening illness and two life-threatening illnesses in the last five years. That was particularly hard to come to terms with, psychologically, he says. The second one affected me so badly.

By the end of 2007 Watson felt devastated. Just when he thought he was getting his life back the discovery and removal of one pituitary tumor he found out he had another one. All his confidence and strength had gone and a lot of what he does relies on knowing those big notes are coming. As a singer in his league, and there arent many, if your confidence gets rattled you lose everything.

When I had the first tumor I only focused on the operation, he says. When I had the second one it was about getting out of intensive care. Then getting out of the bed. Each time there was a different focal point.

When Watson finished his radiotherapy at the beginning of 2008 he decided to start his return. He had put on nearly three stone from the intense course of medication he was being treated with. The day the treatment finished he stared at himself in his full-length hallway mirror and said, Right Watson, its time to get back to work The very next day he went to the gym much to everyone elses dismay.

Thats the kind of idiot I am, he says now. Most people would rest. I looked terrible too

Six months of three-times-a-week visits to the gym followed before he was ready to sing again. Finally, in August 2008, Watson went to visit his voice coach, Patrick McGuigan. They began by running through scales. Suddenly McGuigan stopped Watson and said, Oh my god! What has happened to your voice?

I expected something negative, Watson says. But he thought it was fantastic, with all this new depth and power. The tumor could have been growing for 10-15 years in my nasal cavity, so when I had it cut out I went from a V8 to a V12! All those experiences have affected the way I view my life, the way I view others and the way I conduct myself.

Those changes are all over Watsons new album, La Voce, which was recorded in Rome this June with the Roma Sinfonietta, Ennio Morricones orchestra of choice. Watsons voice, as heard on Pino Donaggios Io Che Non Vivo (Senza Te), Mario Lanzas Arrivederci Roma or Parla Piu Piano (the theme from The Godfather) has never sounded better, stronger, more driven and powerful.

Ive truly given my heart and soul to this record, he says. It feels quite poignant this is where I started. With everything thats happened Ive had a lot of time to focus on the record and make the one I really wanted to make. The performances are as good as they can possibly be at this stage of my career.

Indeed, Watson says La Voce is the product of his life to date, the defining record of his life so far.

I believe that I have come through all this for a reason and that reason is now, he says. There are great times to come, but this is what its all about for me now. This is the first record that Ive made which has true continuity, La Voce is a very clear-sighted piece.

Russell Watson never imagined hed someday be the worlds greatest tenor. Born in Salford, hed have preferred to make it playing football, the trouble was, however much he played, he never got any better. Watsons says his father is so laid back hes lying down and I love that about him, but thats not the sort of person he is. Watson hated losing, hated that he was no good at the thing he loved. So he found something else to be the best at.

His mum would play Mario Lanza and Tchaikovsky, Mantovani, Chopin, Schubert, even The James Last Orchestra in the house. Her own father was a concert-level pianist, [my grandfather] was amazing, Watson says. Id sit on his lap and listen to him for hours

Aged seven Watson learnt to play the piano, and he was good, but he didnt like it, never had a flair for it. There was no joy there, he says. But when I started singing there was real joy. I started playing guitar as a teenager and started singing along with the Beatles and Jam records I loved.

Watson formed a band called The Crowd (we were not very good) and his band mates would tell him he sounded just like McCartney or Weller.

Im a natural mimic, he says. I still do it now. I can do my A&R man, my manager and I can always do other singers. An old compere at this club in Stockport used to joke, Russell Watson, 1001 voices

Those old clubs were extremely hard work. People were more interested in talking about what was on Coronation St than what any singer was doing. The factory work Watson did for 90 a week was mind-numbing so singing became his escape.

Ive walked out on stage in some of the biggest venues in the world, he says. The Vatican, Sydney Opera House, Carnegie Hall, Old Trafford! but nothing is as daunting as a Friday night at a serious working mens club. If I ever start to feel sorry for myself I go back and remember where Ive been, singing through a fog of Woodbine smoke

One night, a concert secretary appeared out of the fog in front of Watson. He had grey hair with a yellow streak and yellow, tar-stained fingers. Watson had just sung The Music of The Night .

He just looked at me and said, You have a smashing voice, have you ever tried any of that Pavarooty stuff?

Watson, determined as ever, went off and learnt Nessun Dorma phonetically and when he first sang it live he got a standing ovation. That was the beginning of a whole new life. A few short years later in May 1999 that standing ovation was at Old Trafford just before Manchester United won the Premiership. Since then Watson has sung for American presidents, Japanese emperors, British Royalty, an array of European Prime Ministers, Middle-Eastern Sultans, even the late Pope John Paul II who requested a private audience with Watson at the Vatican. There have been eight albums, each one winning more praise than the one before. His first, The Voice , went to No. 1 in the US and the UK and won two Classical Brit awards. Encore was No. 1 in the UK classical charts for 30 weeks and Watson won another two Classical Brit Awards. Every Russell Watson UK release has gone Top 10 in the UK and among them he boasts two Double Platinum certifications, one Platinum and two Gold. But this album, Watson says, is special.

My best friend, The Colonel, listened to it and he said, Theyre all very good tunes, lad! and thats it, La Voce has only great tracks on it. Ive learnt more in the last ten years about music, life, performance and singing than you could ever learn at any music college. Theres no one on the planet that I worry about being stood in front of. No one is as genuinely impassioned about this music as I am now.

Watson knows you dont step off a factory onto a stage with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra without having something beyond talent. You need drive and desire, a need to make your mark, to make your voice heard.

My music is about making a connection says Russell. Put me in front of 90,000 in a football stadium and I feel all their energy. Its what I live for, that and my kids. Theres nothing bigger than that feeling.

Wales: Looking for a Christmas present that is thoughtful and unusual? Over 1.75 million Americans are of Welsh ancestry and you can help friends or family unlock their past with a gift voucher from Welsh Family History specialist Where Youre From. It can be used to research a family tree or for more unusual projects such as publishing the family history or bespoke vacations.

In these uncertain times increasing number of people are taking an interest in their family roots. Welsh genealogy has its own challenges including the fact everyone seemed to share the same names such as David Davies or Evan Jones! Also Wales has its own language the oldest living language in Europe and although its now used alongside English, back in the 18th and early 19th century it was the sole language of rural Wales.

Based in Wales, Where Youre From specialises in helping Americans of Welsh extraction research their roots. The service is knowledgeable and friendly and you can even pay for the vouchers by credit card in $US dollars. More information online @ www.where-youre-from.com

"Cardiff City is not just a club, it's a way of life"

Cardiff City is, in 2013, arguably the biggest and most successful football club in Wales. It was the first to achieve 'Championship' status within the new League structure, boasts a squad peppered with highly rated international players, and is now beginning to live up to its time-honoured 'sleeping giant' tag.

Buy 'From The Ashes' here

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Images Of A City, Stories Of Its People

Hundreds of prints and negatives taken by Cardiff photographer Keith S. Robertson lay forgotten in drawers in one of the city's buildings for years - the photographer himself had been told they had been destroyed. They were found, however, and their creative and social value was realized immediately. The result of restorative work on the photographs and the reaction generated from the people portrayed or who have seen them, is what we have in this fascinating book. 126 B&W photos, 1 color. Buy Cardiff Before Cardiff here

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This is the first in an occasional series of interviews with accommodation providers in north Wales who are connected with the Celticos/AmeriCymru Trail Tour . This week we would like to thank Rhys Williams, joint proprietor of the Dunoon Hotel, Llandudno for agreeing to be interviewed about this superb vacation venue, its location, history and attractions. Visit the Hotel website here:- Dunoon Hotel

The Dunoon Hotel Llandudno
The Front Lounge - Dunoon Hotel, Llandudno The Dining Room - Dunoon Hotel, Llandudno Twin Beds - Dunoon Hotel, Llandudno

Out of ancient Wales rides Rhydian, a raw, untried young knight with a great deal to prove and an arduous journey to make, both physically and spiritually.

On the way, he must face jealous enemies, shape shifters, spirits from other ages, enchantresses and a fabled sword and scabbard, which can render its user invincible but can also lead him into temptation and to craving power at any cost.

To help him, he has his faithful warhorse, his clever hound and his beautiful lady, blessed with second sight. Rhydian needs not only incredible courage but also humility, forgiveness and friendship if he is to conquer lust, hate, anger and vainglory and achieve true knighthood.

The rich, clear, simple verse will catch, enthrall and ultimately uplift the reader. The pace is exciting, the wonderful landscape vividly drawn and all the characters touchingly human.Read more HERE

V S Jones was born in London, where she originally trained as nurse. However, a born rebel, she left before completing her training and headed to Jersey where she drove taxis. Eventually she returned to London and some time afterwards opened a restaurant in North Wales with her first husband. When both her restaurant and her marriage failed, she returned to nursing and supported her two daughters as a single mother. Two more daughters followed her marriage to her second husband, and at the age of 50 she embarked on a degree course at her local college, followed by a Cert Ed. Since completing a post-graduate Diploma in Dementia Studies, she now divides her time between distance learning tutoring and working for a lifeline control centre with particular emphasis on people with dementia. She now lives in Wellington, Somerset.