With The Blessed Crow and Wynford Jones & Geoff Cripps.
Wynford Jones and Geoff Cripps’ towering presence on the folk circuit over four decades has been immense. Both founder members of much-loved 80s folk-rock pioneers The Chartists, Wynford and Geoff retain all their energy and verve. Wynford’s songs articulate, like few others can, the radical Welsh working-class experience…and the poignant memories of growing up in the Valleys.
All are underpinned by the sensitive playing of multi-instrumentalist Geoff, a visionary campaigner for folk music whose work on the arts scene has nurtured new generations of performers. The duo’s current stage act has been given fresh impetus by the digital release of The Chartists’ long-unavailable masterwork Cause For Complaint. It is an album that left Wales’s pre-eminent modern songwriter Martyn Joseph awestruck. “I can’t recall a moment in my lifetime when we needed the siren call of protest more than now,” he said. “We need the spirit of these songs…to remind ourselves of who we truly are.”
“The gig at the Park & Dare Theatre…featured plenty of new material and while it was just two of the original Chartists on stage, the sound was full and the atmosphere electric…” (Jenny White – Western Mail)
“…I heard two lines from one of the songs of this album (Cause for Complaint)…Resolved, unsentimental and utterly effective, that couplet is still one of my benchmarks. I left that session determined to be just as direct and courageous in my writing as the Chartists.” (Brian McNeill – Scottish singer-songwriter/multi-instrumentalist/record producer & author)
Recent performances include :- Sherman Theatre, Cardiff; Big Pit Blaenafon; The Welfare, Ystradgynlais; Theatr Brycheiniog; Blackwood Miners Institute; Trowbridge Festival; Tredegar House Folk Festival; Park & Dare Theatre Treorci; Y Muni Pontypridd.
