Unlocked/Datgloi is an album of 10 songs, created by 10 different communities, working with 5 Live Music Now musicians, over 5 Welsh counties, strengthening connections with their local area through sung stories of local heritage.
Rosehill was written with members of the Rosehill Quarry Group in Swansea about the now Rosehill Community Park which began life as a quarry in the 1800s providing much of the building stone for local use. Rosehill Quarry Community Park is an urban green space that is managed by a local volunteer group to provide a community resource that supports recreation and promotes biodiversity. It has become a focus for local events, bringing people together to take responsibility for its maintenance and development.
The site has a fascinating history and many interesting features, including fresh water springs and a variety of trees, shrubs and wildflowers covering the banks and rocky outcrops created by the former quarrying activities. Some of the benches, handrails and steps re made from recycled plastic material. It has become an important part of the community within which to socialise, though they have had issues with criminal activity there, the voluntary group who run it hope by celebrating it through song and performance it can raise the profile and importance to protect it as a resource within the community.
Swansea based musician Angharad Jenkins is fiddle player with the Welsh folk groups Calan and Pendevig as well as playing in a duo with her Mother, harpist Delyth Jenkins as DnA. She has been a Live Music Now Musician since 2015 where she also plays as the duo String Beats with Beatboxer Dean Yhnell 'BeatTechnique'.
lyrics
Rosehill
Let us walk the Green Corridor
Where the ground is soft and the air is pure,
On Terrace Road there’s an open door
And Rosehill’s there to be explored,
Yeah, Rosehill’s there to be explored.
Between Townhill and Swansea town
A wild green garden can be found,
Where Nant y Graig springs from the ground
Into nature’s adventure playground,
Yeah, nature’s adventure playground.
Can you hear the herring gull cry?
And the magpies nesting way up high?
Woodpeckers, blackbirds, wrens and crows
Is how this quarry’s symphony goes,
Is how this quarry’s symphony goes.
But don’t forget its history
Don’t forget its past
The stone hewn from this very quarry
Was used to build this town.
The noise, the clatter of iron on the rock,
Drills and dynamite,
The work on the hill for Pennant Sandstone
Still scars this very site.
The quarry was levelled, but didn't give up
Reborn as Rosehill tennis club,
Where Mike Davies played, with a pearl white ball
Wimbledon finalist, six foot tall
Yeah, Wimbledon finalist, six foot tall.
For twenty years the brambles climbed
The quarry slept, slipped out of mind
But people woke and began to fight
Assembled a team to put things right.
The dole boys came for their training year
To forge new paths, and to clean and clear
They brought new life with their toil and sweat
Rosehill renewed with each young step.
Let’s unwind on the cockle shell path
Around and around on the labyrinth,
June eighty seven they first made their mark
Which brought new life to Rosehill Park,
Yeah, brought new life to Rosehill Park.
So when you next walk the Green Corridor
Cast your mind back to what came before,
On Terrace Road there’s an open door
And Rosehill’s there to be explored,
Yeah, Rosehill’s there to be explored.
Credits:
Words by Angharad Jenkins
Verse 6 (not incl. middle 8) by Melvyn Williams
Verse 7 (not incl. middle 8) by Robin Hall
credits
from Unlocked / Datgloi,
released July 30, 2021
Angharad Jenkins - vocals, fiddle
Patrick Rimes - piano
Jordan Price Williams - cello
Live Music Now is the UK's leading musicians development and outreach charity, bringing exceptional live music to communities who wouldn't normally be able to access it. www.livemusicnow.org.uk
Melodic, acoustic delight from singer/songwriter Chris Webb, a Live Music Now musician based in Bristol. Beautifully emotive tunes and sung stories, the perfect soundtrack for life. Live Music Now
One of our favourite albums from Live Music Now mentor and storytelling genius Gavin Osborn, worth buying for the amazing "Adam Woodyatt" track alone. Live Music Now
Live Music Now alumnus Maz is a brilliant acoustic/folk singer/songwriter with stories to tell and songs to sing full of heart, featuring delicious harmonies and melodies that never leave. Live Music Now
The Australian folk-pop singer tackles deconstruction, her Christian childhood, and sexuality on her infectious sophomore album. Bandcamp New & Notable Oct 14, 2023