Meredydd Evans

Meredydd Evans (9 December 1919 – 21 February 2015), known colloquially as Merêd, was a collector, editor, historian and performer of folk music of Wales written in the Welsh language. His award-winning recordings of his own unaccompanied vocal performances and his published editions in collaboration with his American-born wife Phyllis Kinney have helped to preserve Welsh musical legacy and promote it world-wide.

Early years

Born in Llanegryn in Merionethshire, Evans was brought up in Tanygrisiau. He attributes his first exposure to Welsh folk songs to his mother who sang to him when he was a child. His interest in Welsh music developed at the University College of North Wales, Bangor, under the influence of Mrs. Enid Parry. At Bangor, he was a frequent performer, often with Cledwyn Jones and Robin Williams and they later notably starred in Noson Lawen (he was the cwac cwac of Triawd y Buarth.)

A lifelong advocate of nonviolence, Evans faced a tribunal to claim his conscientious objector status in World War II. Evans was given unconditional exemption from military service, on religious grounds.

Academia and TV work

Evans met Phyllis Kinney, an American singer whilst she was working in the UK. The couple married and moved to her home country. In 1954 he recorded an important selection of songs for Folkways Records in New York City while a Ph.D. Candidate in philosophy at Princeton University.

After his return to Wales, he and his wife edited three collections of Welsh songs described as "definitive reference-works for this genre of national song." Between 1963 and 1973 he returned to popular entertainment as Head of Light Entertainment for BBC Wales, and a producer of numerous popular television programmes including Lloffa, Fo a Fe, Ryan a Ronnie and Hob y Deri Dando.

Political activism

Evans was a senior figure in Cymdeithas yr Iaith Gymraeg (the Welsh Language Society) and a lifelong advocate of non-violent revolutionary means to promote the interests of Welsh speakers. In 1979, Evans along with two fellow academics, Ned Thomas and Pennar Davies, was sentenced by the Carmarthen assizes for breaking into the Pencarreg television transmitter in the campaign which would lead to the establishment of a Welsh language broadcasting service.

In 1999 Evans was again in court after refusing to pay his TV licence, stating there had been a decrease in the amount of Welsh broadcasting over the proceeding decade.

In March 2014 Meredydd was quoted as backing further peaceful demonstrations by Cymdeithas yr Iaith Gymraeg following protests in Aberystwyth.

Later life

In April, 2007, the University of Wales published a Festschrift volume for Evans and Kinney, "a fully bilingual collection of critical essays on various aspects of Welsh song and traditional music by Wales’ leading experts and musicologists" to celebrate their contribution "not only to Welsh traditional music but to the very culture and language of Wales."

In 2012, Merêd appeared on Gai Toms' album, Bethel, on which he sang Cân y Dewis

In 2013 he was awarded 'Tywysydd' ('Guide') in the first ever Parêd Gwyl Dewi Aberystwyth (St David's Day Parade) for his services to Wales and the Welsh language.

Evans died at the age of 95 on 21 February 2015.

He was awarded a 'Good Tradition Award' by the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards in April 2015 for his contribution to the revival of traditional Welsh songs.

Publications

• Hume Gwasg Gee, Denbigh. 1984.
• Merêd: detholiad o ysgrifau Dr. Meredydd Evans (eds Geraint Huw Jenkins, Ann Ffrancon), Gomer, Llandysul, 1994.
• Canu'r Cymry Volumes 1&2. Welsh Folk Songs. Welsh Folk-Song Society.

Recordings

• Merêd - Caneuon Gwerin 2005 (double album, Sain SCD2414)