Origin of the Species
The Shamoncies were formed in August 2006 by Darshan vocalist Tim Williams and ex Baa guitarist Simon Jones, when Simon approached Tim with some acoustic tunes he had been writing. Tim then put melody lines and lyrics to some of the tunes, it soon became obvious that the two parts combined to make a greater whole.
Tim then contacted Idris Evans, his songwriting partner over the previous thirty years, and keyboard player from Darshan. After listening to the initial tunes Idris joined the collaboration through the summer and winter of 2006, ending up with some twenty one songs.
John "Rum" Francis was the next person to be contacted, and was asked by the lads after sitting in on a rehearsal "Do you think we could record an album with this material, with the basics being recorded here (Tim and Allyson's Porthyrhyd farmhouse) ?" replied "Why not!"
The album tracks were sketched out at the farmhouse, with a little help from another Darshan member - Vince Fusco.
The recording location was moved to John's Cwm Tawel studio in January 2007, where other musician friends were then called to come in and add their parts. Firstly, comedian and bass player and old friend Paul Dazeley, added bass parts to four songs. Jason Charles, Darshan's lead guitarist, added his virtuoso skills to the majority of the songs, over several weekly sessions. Next was Nia Thomas, a friend of Tim's step daughter, adding backing vocals to several of the songs.
Andy Edwards, ex- Mango Trout bass player joined the band, laying down some excellent bass on the remaining songs. Finally Jeff Singer, ex- Alkatraz, added his guitar and vocal skills to the party, also helping to wirte vocal harmony parts, appearing on most songs as guitar and/or harmony vocals.
Concept for the Album
The concept behind this Shamoncies album "How's your mother . . . . . . Father still working?" originated from two tracks written by Tim and Idris for the 2006 Darshan album "From Black To Grey". The song "The Black" focused on Welsh coal mining, whilst another song "The Grey", referred lyrically to the death of Tim's great-grandfather in a coal pit, and the family's struggle afterwards.
Tim was moved to research other areas of Welsh social history, including such topics and events as The Revivalists, Welsh Coal Mining in general, The Mormons, Sliding Scale Pay Structures etc. etc. leading to the composition of the lyrics in this Shamoncies album.
Hopefully, listeners to the songs on this album, will understand a little more of the social history of Wales, and by so doing, make the work involved in creating this album worthwhile.
