A crwth is a very odd Welsh instrument indeed. Think of it as a fiddle that went seriously weird as you can see from this description:
[T]he crwth is a medieval bowed lyre and ranks as one of Wales’ most exotic traditional instruments. It has six strings tuned g g’ c’ c d’ d” and a flat bridge and fingerboard. The gut strings produce a soft purring sound, earthy but tender. The melody is played on four of the six strings, with the other two acting as plucked or bowed drones and the octave doublings producing a constant chordal accompaniment.
This second album (the title means ‘duet’ in Welsh) follows on Crwth, the cleverly named first album, which was reviewed by resident fiddler Jack Merry when it came out in 2005 — ‘Cass Meurig’s debut album Crwth is much more than just a crwth being played, as Cass Meurig has assembled a tasty little trio of Nigel Eaton playing hurdy-gurdy and Bob Evans playing a second crwth (!). So what we have here is two ancient Celtic stringed instrument played either plucked or with a bow, and a hurdy gurdy, prolly one of the oddest instruments ever created. Nigel alone can make enough racket to keep a Solstice celebration going long into the morning light!’
The first album, Crwth, certainly gets played heavily by me, as it has a cool medieval feel to it. Deuawd does not feel much more contemporary than the first album, as the music recorded here really isn’t that new — just different from that of the first album.
Now the difference in this release is that it sees just two players, fiddle and crwth player Cass Meurig and guitarist Nial Cain. Nial was a founding member of Flop Eared Mule, which later became the Old Rope String Band, and also played with Tyneside’s legendary oldest extant ceilidh band The Borderers, where he learned to play the fiddle from the great Northumberland piper and fiddler Forster Charlton. A skilled violin maker and restorer, he now plays with the excellent local twmpath band Aderyn Prin (think Breton fez noz style music).
There are spritely dance tunes as well as the usual slow airs, some sung with verses in penillion style, which is the art of Welsh vocal improvisation in which a singer sings a countermelody over a harp tune. I was pleasantly pleased that Cass’ voice is soft and tender as she does not sing at all on the first album. More than just a superb musician, Cass has edited the works in Alawon John Thomas, John Thomas’ manuscript of Welsh fiddle music from 1752, and that shows on both albums as the choice of material is superb. I prefer Crwth just a tad over this affair, as it’s more medieval in feel to me, but I suspect that Deuawd will grow on me with repeated listenings.
(Fflach Tradd, 2009)
