Hoop dreams

A lot has changed in the world of Welsh chanteuse Cerys Matthews. Her band Catatonia are no more and she is no longer propping up the likes of the London Met Bar with a bottle of champers for company. Her much documented party animal days are long gone, she is now happily married and she has also just released her first solo album. It’s all going right for Cerys now, after a few years in the wilderness and, indeed, a spell in rehab.

But she hasn’t changed too much. Cerys is still as giggly and chatty as you’d expect. Despite relocating to South Carolina, her thick Welsh accent is still very much intact and sometimes I have a bit of difficulty deciphering what she is saying from the other end of a rather weak transatlantic phone line.

Cerys is as surprised as anyone that she has taken to the US so much. “It surprised me because when we first started coming here we always went to New York and LA to play concerts,” she explains. “I’ve only just realised how big it is for starters. I like going on the back roads into the countryside. That’s how I found the studio I worked in. I surprised myself in a very good way. I’ve got married and settled here and that’s all happened in the space of a year, so it’s not that long a time. But I go home to Wales all the time. Clocking up those air miles!”

Cockahoop was recorded in Nashville with a veritable stellar cast of legends including Bob Dylan and Ryan Adams steel guitarist Bucky Baxter.

“It is the sort of album I began dreaming of when I was about nine,” Cerys raves. “I love the sound of it. I love the musicians on it. I love the way the songs fit together. I love it! When I came over here June 10 of last year I hooked up with Bucky. I found him to be a musical soul-mate. We started to play some songs and word of mouth started spreading around Nashville and more and more musicians started coming up to the woods to try out some songs.”

“We got some of the best players around,” Matthews continues. “It was unusual for me to be doing an album in such a spontaneous way and not over-layering and overdubbing everything. The range of songs was wonderful too – from Handsome Family one, to ‘Chardonnay’ by Roger Cook. It’s classic country stuff – and then you have a Welsh hymn which I’ve sung since I was a child, and a French Louisiana Cajun song, and then some pop stuff. There was a lot of freedom in the studio, and I think it shows.”

While Cerys will be appearing at a one day festival in June in North Wales with her fellow countrymen Super Furry Animals, she won’t be doing too much touring or promotion. “I’m having a baby, so I’m only doing a handful of dates,” she reveals. “I’ll finish up with Glastonbury because that will be six weeks before my due date. I might do more dates in the autumn but I’m not committing to anything yet. I did two shows in Nashville which were just lovely. I do like to tour as much as I can but I won’t be for the next while.”

So it will be a while until she re-visits the Emerald Isle, as Cerys enjoys a much more stable and natural lifestyle nowadays. Well, if do need to sort your head and life out, I suppose a spell in Nashville would do anybody the world of good!