So, as previewed last week, I spent the weekend at Boia in St Davids (no apostrophe, Oliver) and what a joyful and immensely satisfying thing it was. Lots and lots of music in small venues performed with joy, humour, and a wonderful sense of community. Everything and everyone was lovely. Apart from the bloody weather, but even that lent an air of magical resistance to the proceedings. Bracing yourself against the downpour, then stumbling into a crowded pub with music coming from a corner. Wolfing down a pint whilst grinning foolishly as a song unfolds. Walking off the hangover along a cliff top path, allowing an errant adder to slither across your path, before turning to face the wind as it scrapes the pallor of the previous evening’s shenanigans from your visage, replacing it with a healthy colour which then fades as you plunge into another dark venue and another great performance. There will be a proper review in time from the esteemed Oliver Gray, but until then, thank you all at Boia, especially the tireless Steve Prior. A triumph! It’s not often I weep openly at performances, but there were a few times mixed in with the laughter and shouts.
Mind you, St Davids is a bloody long way away from anywhere, and it definitely has the air of somewhere just on the edge of modern society. An enclave of art, endeavour and community. There was a sense of a special place which was hard to pin down, but on speaking to those who live there, there seemed to be a consensus that it was a place that encouraged and celebrated art and music and the communal human spirit. Maybe gushing a bit here, but it really was ace and I will definitely return. And, an adder crossed my path on the clifftop walk. What more do you want from a weekend?
So my listening has been over two six-hour drives in three days; on the way there, a lot of, released that day, Courtney Marie Andrews, and on the way back, as well as Courtney, some Nico and the radio show is full of Small Town Jones, Purple Mountains, Ryan Davis, Katherine Priddy, Laney Jones and much more. As ever…
