Welsh folk 'supergroup' to play Shropshire gigs

The trio, described by Songlines magazine as a “Welsh supergroup", are promising to mix old favourites with material from their long-awaited forthcoming album, Drawn To The Light when they appear at Bitterley Village Hall, near Ludlow, on December 3.

They will also be performing at Escleyside Hall, in South Herefordshire on December 4 and Wem Town Hall on December 5.

The three are Dylan Fowler, Oli Wilson-Dickson and Nia Lynn and they each have impressive musical pedigrees.

Guitar maestro Dylan has played with Nigel Kennedy and Richard Thompson among others.

But after spending most of his life touring the world, Dylan couldn’t be more delighted to get close to his audience.

“It’s fantastic to play big capacity concert halls, but in smaller venues you get a real intimacy,” he says.

“There’s a real opportunity to connect with people in the audience. It’s both humbling and thrilling.”

A spokesperson for the group says the audience should expect folk tunes and songs with mesmerising rhythms, blistering, jaw-dropping technique and haunting melodies.

Dylan, who spent three years in a duo with Sting’s guitarist Dominic Miller - and co-writer of the international mega-hit Shape Of My Heart - is in exalted company with his Alaw bandmates.

Oli Wilson-Dickson is one of folk music’s most charismatic violinists - in demand as a performer supporting the likes of Jools Holland, José Carreras and Jamie Cullum.

BBC’s Radio 2 magazine describes Oli as “an exceptional fiddler” and the folk magazine Taplas calls him “a master musician who can make his violin sit up and beg.”

The third, and newest, member of Alaw is singer and multi-instrumentalist, Nia Lynn.

With a performing career effortlessly spanning folk and jazz, Nia has graced some of the great stages of the world - from Ronnie Scott’s to The Royal Albert Hall, the Royal Festival Hall and The Barbican.

Now she is central not just of the live act but also to Alaw’s much anticipated album Drawn to the Light. It is a bilingual masterpiece, in their native Welsh it’s Denwyd i’r Goleuni with an accompanying booklet you read from one end in Welsh and from the other in English.

Nia said: “Playing and recording with Dylan and Oli, you need to be right at the top of your game.

“And in a live show, no matter how much we rehearse, they’ll always throw an unexpected piece of extra brilliance into the mix. My job is to keep them on their toes as well. This is going to be a great, great night.”

Tickets for the concerts are available from https://artsalive.co.uk/live-performances/show/?id=11152

Booking is essential and the concerts start at 7.30pm.