Welsh band Jamie Smith’s Mabon to debut at RWMF

KUCHING: Jamie Smith’s Mabon (JSM), the fi rst Welsh band to debut in the Rainforest World Music Festival ( RWMF), has won the ‘Best Group’ award at the 2014 Spiral Earth Awards recently in the United Kingdom.

According to a press statement, the nominations were selected by the editorial team of the online folk and roots magazine, Spiral Earth.

The winners were then decided by public vote and the full list was announced through Spiral Earth’s website.

This year is already looking good for JSM, who had been steadily building a reputation for their outstanding original Celtic songs and instrumental music and their incendiary live performances.

The band features Adam Rhodes on bouzouki, fiddler Oli Wilson-Dickson, Matt ‘ The Hat’ Downer on bass and lolo, Whelan on drums and percussion,

They seem to deliberately try to break away from the English folk circuit, which can be quite cliquey. The BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards are by no means representative of the wider picture.

Jamie

alongside Jamie on accordion and vocals.

JSM expressed their delight over their win.

“They seem to deliberately try to break away from the English folk circuit, which can be quite cliquey. The BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards are by no means representative of the wider picture,” says Jamie, who is also a part of the traditional Manx trio Barrule also nominated in the Debut category of their self-titled album.

JSM has played sessions for BBC Radio 2 and Radio 3, headlined shows for Celtic Connections, WOMAD ( UK), Interceltique du Lorient, Het Lindeboom (France), Music Meeting ( Netherlands) and a host of high profi le festivals across Europe.

Last year, Jamie also won the competitive accordion competition at the Festival Interceltique de Lorient.

The RWMF will celebrate its 17th edition this year and will feature at least 24 bands to perform on stage.

To be held at Sarawak Cultural Village in Kuching, RWMF will be held from June 20 to 22.

Sarawak Tourism Board is delighted to have the award-winning JSM band to make its debut for the fi rst time at the festival.

More information about the RWMF programmes and early bird discounts are available at www.rwmf.net.