Chansonnier,storysongs,a happy Tom Waits.
Sometimes a little magic is made in the most unexpected of places.
Last Saturday night, Bourton’s Live Music Cafe Bar - a quirky, family-run music venue nestled amongst the hair salons and vaping shops of Bargoed high street - was transformed into a honky tonk blues bar by an enchanting live performance. Working these wonders was local musician Mark Watkin Price, a self-styled ‘songwriting artist’ from Aberdare. And indeed, Mark Watkin Price definitely has a touch of wizard about him.
According to his website, he has been described as looking like ‘Hulk Hogan with a voice like a Richard Burton who can sing.’ The goatee beard, the Spanish guitar and the Panama hat (which he dramatically removed and placed on his own hatstand on the stage) are all part of Mark's inimitable mystique, and are neatly encapsulated in his logo image on the backdrop to the stage. Before he even sings his first note, his charisma has filled the room.
Did I say sing? Part of the wizardry of his performance is that Mark appears to be singing, but is often actually talking in a mellifluous dialogue with his guitar...Think Johnny Cash’s ‘No Charge’ laced with ‘Duw it’s Hard’ by Max Boyce and you’re getting somewhere close.
At heart, Mark is a storyteller using music as a medium to spin a good yarn. Fusing Country & Western and bluesy guitar rhythms with lyrics full of the black humour and quiet anguish of the dispossessed Valleys man, Mark held the Bargoed audience captive for well over an hour. The subject matter of his songs ranges from a girl whose baby was forcibly adopted, to a man who thinks he is joining a dogwalking group but turns up to discover his wife actually dogging. Mark flits with ease between searing heartache and gloriously daft tomfoolery.
But even his tales of woe are not dirges, and are saved from being so by the guitar cadences which evoke a bittersweet, wry acceptance of the jingle-jangle absurdity of life. To quote the man himself: “Life is God’s little joke. Laugh, dammit!”
Humour and lust for life are never far from the surface in his lyrics, and even Death is deemed fair game for the wizard’s wit; in the song ‘Reaper’ he makes mischief with the contemplation of his own mortality.
He also makes the occasional foray into politics, raising a cheer from the audience by suggesting that Tony Benn, even dead, would be “better than this lot.” "I will attend to life, fend for what is mine" - lyrics from the song 'Comfort' - neatly sum up the gentle defiance in the face of adversity which is a leitmotif running through all of Mark's songs. And I could see that same gentle defiance on the faces of some of the locals in the audience. Mark possesses a natural ability to connect with his audience, giving voice to their trials and tribulations through his lyrics, through his guitar and through the sheer warmth of his humanity.
Between songs, he held the audience's attention with a mixture of self-deprecating banter and truly heartfelt gratitude. Audience participation was an endearing feature of the gig, reaching its crescendo when Bargoed high street resounded with a joyful group rendition of the refrain “dog-dog-dogging along” from Mark’s signature song ‘Dogging.’ Tears of laughter flowed down cheeks which looked like they had tasted their fair share of salt in their time.
Mark’s second album ‘What If?’ is available to purchase on his website, and he can be seen again soon weaving his magic at the Cwmfest in Cwmaman on Sunday 24th September - just look out for the wizard in the Panama hat.
Maggie Morgan.
‘The Voice’, Newport Gwent's liveliest local magazine doing a focus on music in the immediate area - including Caerphilly, where I am based.