David Llewellyn wins John Lennon Songwriting Contest!
We were immensely excited and pleased to learn that David Llewellyn , a recording artist from Nashville Tenessee and a member of Americymru has won the 2008 John Lennon Songwriting Contest ( Folk category. ) with a song about Welsh coal-mining. The song , "Take Us Down" can be heard on his Americymru profile page here . .David explains a little about the background to the sing in this quote from the News section of his site:-"I just won the prestigious John Lennon Songwriting competition Folk Category !!!!!!!I entered Take Us Down, my song about a small boys first day down a Welsh coal mine, and his fathers thoughts.The song also helped me win the Kerrville Folk Festivals New Folk competition last year. I could say Im lucky I guess, but I must take this opportunity to thank Kari Estrin.As a consultant, and then manager, she single handedly refocused my career. She took me back to my roots, took me back to Wales, made me look at my upbringing, my childhood in the small coal mining valleys of South Wales . . . and see who I am. She went with me as I went down a coal mine for the first time, as I listened to the stories of the old miners who are the tour guides now. The song is a testament to these men, my uncles, my family, the generations of men and children who worked underground. It is their story, their words, but without Kari, I would have missed it all. Thank you Kari."David is currently our featured member on Americymru and we hope to be running a much fuller piece on his life and work in the near future.