UISCEDWR

Event information

From the moment Welsh fiddle player/singer Anna Esslemont met Irish bodhran virtuoso Cormac Byrne late one strange, magical night when both were students in Manchester in 2002 and they resolved to make sweet music together, their rise was instant and spectacular.

Forming a trio, they won the prestigious BBC Young Folk Award having barely played a gig together, starred at the Cambridge Folk Festival the following year, went on tour to be greeted by ecstatic, jigging audiences and were nominated for a "grown-ups" BBC Folk Award after making a debut album 'Everywhere' that had critics and fans alike rolling on their backs and kicking their legs in the air in delight. They were young, vivacious, adventurous, exciting and original and their impossibly captivating way with everything from a bunch of reels to dark songs about broken relationships had the folk world eating out of their hands. With the sort of energised momentum they seemed to be effortlessly igniting, it seemed only a matter of time before the rest of the world would follow.

Then Anna got sick. Seriously sick. Cutting a long story short, Anna was diagnosed with aplastic anaemia, a disease resulting in dangerously low blood counts as her immune system attacked the bone marrow. In December 2006 she underwent a successful bone marrow transplant and shortly afterwards Uiscedwr were back on the road with a string of tours in the UK and Europe.

2009 saw the release of their highly acclaimed fourth album “Fish Cat Door”, 2010 saw Anna and Cormac become Mr & Mrs Byrne. The future looks bright for Uiscedwr, one our favourite bands here at Rugby Roots, and we’re delighted to welcome them back.

Completing the line up at this concert is guitar and 6 string bass wizard Nick Waldock, giving them an even fatter, funkier, folkier sound. The eclectic repertoire draws on traditions from all over the British Isles tempered by influences as diverse as Jazz, Latin, Blues and Klezmer.

Come along and spend an evening with Uiscedwr and travel with them round the world.