Rag Foundation

Sometimes, amid the emo and indie pop that makes up much of the best-documented Welsh music, it’s good get reacquainted with the other side of the coin - bands that plough their own particular furrow without caring much for about passing trends and fads. Rag Foundation have been around for sometime now, touring the live circuit with their brand of acoustic-based music. They’ve garnered fans from all quarters, but remain something of a hidden gem. This is a shame, because, on the strength of Uplands, they’ve a fair number of musical tricks up their collective sleeve. Uplands is their third release, after the 1999 debut LP Minka and the South By Southwest EP of 2001. With a beguiling brand of folk-pop, the album also takes in balladry, Van Morrison-style soul and a blend of guitar and harmony rarely heard since the best days of CSNY. Uplands kicks off with Spend It In The Summertime, a jaunty sunshine singalong reminiscent that’s just the right antidote to these long winter nights. However, Rag Foundation play in a broad church: with songs such as the low-key Thank You and the achingly pretty Your Company, they forsake the pop for an acoustic-based approach all of their own. It works best, as on Clwb Lullaby, when they set aside any attempts to be upbeat and wallow in their dark side. There, Rag Foundation reach a place uncharted by most bands, where melody and emotion collide and float on the crest of a musical cloud. What’s more, we’re told they’re even better live. Go check them out. Words: Alys Evans - BBC

Sometimes, amid the emo and indie pop that makes up much of the best-documented Welsh music, it’s good get reacquainted with the other side of the coin - bands that plough their own particular furrow without caring much for about passing trends and fads. Rag Foundation have been around for sometime now, touring the live circuit with their brand of acoustic-based music. They’ve garnered fans from all quarters, but remain something of a hidden gem. This is a shame, because, on the strength of Uplands, they’ve a fair number of musical tricks up their collective sleeve. Uplands is their third release, after the 1999 debut LP Minka and the South By Southwest EP of 2001. With a beguiling brand of folk-pop, the album also takes in balladry, Van Morrison-style soul and a blend of guitar and harmony rarely heard since the best days of CSNY. Uplands kicks off with Spend It In The Summertime, a jaunty sunshine singalong reminiscent that’s just the right antidote to these long winter nights. However, Rag Foundation play in a broad church: with songs such as the low-key Thank You and the achingly pretty Your Company, they forsake the pop for an acoustic-based approach all of their own. It works best, as on Clwb Lullaby, when they set aside any attempts to be upbeat and wallow in their dark side. There, Rag Foundation reach a place uncharted by most bands, where melody and emotion collide and float on the crest of a musical cloud. What’s more, we’re told they’re even better live. Go check them out. Words: Alys Evans - BBC

Rag Foundation "South By Southwest" (EP)
Label: Ty Bach; TBCD 001; 2001; Playing time: 20.47 min
If Wales is anything, it's the best kept secret of all those Celtic countries. But there's a rich tradition of instrumental music (remember Crasdant), English and Welsh language songs (Carreg Lafar, Ysdryd Chouchen), and harpers (Robin Huw Bowen, William Taylor). Unlike the emperor who's going naked, Rag Foundation from Swansea even don't appear in rags. Traditional songs are dressed up in the latest fashion. Rag Foundation's debut "Minka" has been celebrated as groundbreaking for Welsh folk. The trio of Neil Woollard (vocals), Richard Cowell (guitar) and Kate Ronconi (fiddle, crwth) has been expanded now for the EP "South By Southwest" with a rhythm section to turn the tradition into sexy pop music. Wales must not hide in the shadows of the Celtic neighbours, there's more to discover than coal and rugged hills. - Folk World

Rag Foundation "South By Southwest" (EP)
Label: Ty Bach; TBCD 001; 2001; Playing time: 20.47 min
If Wales is anything, it's the best kept secret of all those Celtic countries. But there's a rich tradition of instrumental music (remember Crasdant), English and Welsh language songs (Carreg Lafar, Ysdryd Chouchen), and harpers (Robin Huw Bowen, William Taylor). Unlike the emperor who's going naked, Rag Foundation from Swansea even don't appear in rags. Traditional songs are dressed up in the latest fashion. Rag Foundation's debut "Minka" has been celebrated as groundbreaking for Welsh folk. The trio of Neil Woollard (vocals), Richard Cowell (guitar) and Kate Ronconi (fiddle, crwth) has been expanded now for the EP "South By Southwest" with a rhythm section to turn the tradition into sexy pop music. Wales must not hide in the shadows of the Celtic neighbours, there's more to discover than coal and rugged hills. - Folk World

Article available online only as PDF - Taplas

Article available online only as PDF - Taplas

Rag Foundation
Minka
Fflach CD 220H (1999)

Rag Foundation
South by Southwest (EP)
Ty Bach Records (www.ragfoundation.co.uk)

If one of the true marks of an album's rewards is an ability to convey intimacy, then Rag Foundation is a most delicious secret. Currently at the vanguard of the Welsh roots music scene, Rag Foundation's two official releases creep up on you.

Minka features the Rags as a trio: Richard Cowell on guitar, Kate Ronconi-Woollard providing fiddle and vocals, and Neil Woollard as lead singer. Woollard has a smooth, silky voice that glides through daring, bare-bones arrangements; just listen to the world-weariness of "Four- Loom Weaver." In their glorious rendering of "Bonny Bunch of Roses" the band shifts around some of the verses and tightens the narrative in this cautionary traditional tale starring Napoleon Bonaparte's son, leaving Woollard crooning "roses" at the end as if this was Velvet Underground rather than a Welsh folk group. Minka is also aided and abetted by such stars as Julie Murphy, Andy Cutting, and very tasteful hurdy-gurdy by Nigel Eaton.

South by Southwest indicates where the band is heading: more original songs, with strong ties to the Welsh tradition and language. The EP finds Rag Foundation expanded to a quintet, adding Nick Moore on bass and Huw Rees on drums. The result is yet another keeper. The first track, "Mower," is as perfect a modern roving-out song as one could hope for, fit for acoustic shoegazers everywhere. Learn the secret that is Rag Foundation, and then pass it on. - Lee Blackstone - RootsWorld

Rag Foundation
Minka
Fflach CD 220H (1999)

Rag Foundation
South by Southwest (EP)
Ty Bach Records (www.ragfoundation.co.uk)

If one of the true marks of an album's rewards is an ability to convey intimacy, then Rag Foundation is a most delicious secret. Currently at the vanguard of the Welsh roots music scene, Rag Foundation's two official releases creep up on you.

Minka features the Rags as a trio: Richard Cowell on guitar, Kate Ronconi-Woollard providing fiddle and vocals, and Neil Woollard as lead singer. Woollard has a smooth, silky voice that glides through daring, bare-bones arrangements; just listen to the world-weariness of "Four- Loom Weaver." In their glorious rendering of "Bonny Bunch of Roses" the band shifts around some of the verses and tightens the narrative in this cautionary traditional tale starring Napoleon Bonaparte's son, leaving Woollard crooning "roses" at the end as if this was Velvet Underground rather than a Welsh folk group. Minka is also aided and abetted by such stars as Julie Murphy, Andy Cutting, and very tasteful hurdy-gurdy by Nigel Eaton.

South by Southwest indicates where the band is heading: more original songs, with strong ties to the Welsh tradition and language. The EP finds Rag Foundation expanded to a quintet, adding Nick Moore on bass and Huw Rees on drums. The result is yet another keeper. The first track, "Mower," is as perfect a modern roving-out song as one could hope for, fit for acoustic shoegazers everywhere. Learn the secret that is Rag Foundation, and then pass it on. - Lee Blackstone - RootsWorld

Back in 2000, after the release of their first album Minka, which comprised traditional songs from their native South Wales and beyond, I interviewed Rag Foundation for fRoots magazine. I wrote (and yes, it’s a sentence that careers perilously close to purple prose):

“In a Rags performance the songs are twisted awake by Neil’s expansive, inclusive stage manner and dramatically expressive singing, freely reiterating lines or words and stretching the tune, Richard’s subtly fluid acoustic guitar lines, and Kate’s rich-toned fiddle weaving around and through the vocal with a rare natural Swarbrick-like melodic ingenuity.”

With Neil’s singing more in the great South Walean tradition of ‘can belto’ that brought forth Tom Jones than anything on the folk scene, and that special unity that a great band projects, the trio were beginning to cause a stir and attract a following, bringing together audiences from both folk and indiedom. An acoustic trio, though, was a tough act to make stick in indie’s bar-room proving-grounds, and partly for that reason, and partly because their music was developing, they brought in a bassist and drummer, and recorded an EP South by Southwest. The next full album, 2003’s Uplands, was a work of attractive indie-pop, entirely comprising original band compositions, and showing what an appealing singer Kate is; her singing of Thank You is an airy gem, a favourite of mine that graced their MySpace page in the subsequent years when the band went into a period of inactivity while Neil and Kate threw themselves into parenthood.

Well, now they’re back, and the outside world has changed. The appellation ‘folk’ is experiencing a phase of desirability, whether it indicates traditional-rooted music or simply a kind of human-level non-rock, and a new wave of young musicians are bridging the folkscene/indie divide, from quirky performers in popular small upstairs-room city venues to the remarkable transatlantic success of Mumford and Sons.

The time has never been more right for Rag Foundation.

Andrew Cronshaw, 2012 - fROOTS

Back in 2000, after the release of their first album Minka, which comprised traditional songs from their native South Wales and beyond, I interviewed Rag Foundation for fRoots magazine. I wrote (and yes, it’s a sentence that careers perilously close to purple prose):

“In a Rags performance the songs are twisted awake by Neil’s expansive, inclusive stage manner and dramatically expressive singing, freely reiterating lines or words and stretching the tune, Richard’s subtly fluid acoustic guitar lines, and Kate’s rich-toned fiddle weaving around and through the vocal with a rare natural Swarbrick-like melodic ingenuity.”

With Neil’s singing more in the great South Walean tradition of ‘can belto’ that brought forth Tom Jones than anything on the folk scene, and that special unity that a great band projects, the trio were beginning to cause a stir and attract a following, bringing together audiences from both folk and indiedom. An acoustic trio, though, was a tough act to make stick in indie’s bar-room proving-grounds, and partly for that reason, and partly because their music was developing, they brought in a bassist and drummer, and recorded an EP South by Southwest. The next full album, 2003’s Uplands, was a work of attractive indie-pop, entirely comprising original band compositions, and showing what an appealing singer Kate is; her singing of Thank You is an airy gem, a favourite of mine that graced their MySpace page in the subsequent years when the band went into a period of inactivity while Neil and Kate threw themselves into parenthood.

Well, now they’re back, and the outside world has changed. The appellation ‘folk’ is experiencing a phase of desirability, whether it indicates traditional-rooted music or simply a kind of human-level non-rock, and a new wave of young musicians are bridging the folkscene/indie divide, from quirky performers in popular small upstairs-room city venues to the remarkable transatlantic success of Mumford and Sons.

The time has never been more right for Rag Foundation.

Andrew Cronshaw, 2012 - fROOTS