[opening theme music] - Wow!

Look at this.

[wind blows] - They're goin' over to that peak.

Right?

- Alright.

Just straight down the path?

- Down the path, (Okay) it should be over to the right.

- Yeah.

Okay.

- You might see 'em.

- Just go past the sheep and turn right.

- Here in Northwest Wales, my friend Paul and I were on a quest.

A journey to find the sleeping dragon of the Llyn Peninsula.

Based on the Arthurian legend that's been told for more than a thousand years, this story is about a wizard.

Two warring dragons and a watery construction site.

Back in the fifth century, a warlord king grew frustrated.

He spent his days ordering armies to build him a castle only to find it destroyed the very next morning.

Unable to solve this problem with might, he turned to magic calling on the most famous sorcerer of all time, Young Merlin.

Merlin quickly saw the problem.

The castle wasn't being built on a solid foundation at all, but on an underground lake and a wet tangle of two fighting dragons, one red, one white.

So, they let the fight play out for all to see.

The red dragon, Y Ddraig Goch, was ultimately victorious, while the white dragon, defeated, fled to the east.

Could this be the remains of our Welsh dragon, still guarding Merlin's tomb there across the water on Bardsey Island?

Ancient mystical scholars say, "Yes."

- And that's Bardsey Island over there, right?

- Yeah.

That's where Merlin is supposed to be buried.

And also, quite a few people with nervous breakdowns (Right) or something go there, and they come back cured, apparently, so they say.

- Well, if- if you have to swim to get over there and you survive- - Yeah.

You'd be very cured early.

[laughing] - Well, the sheep seem to know.

- Yeah, even lovely aren't they?

- Their lovely.

- I'm Mark Allen, a singer-songwriter with a guitar on my back.

Connecting with people one musical conversation at a time.

♪ Traveling down this open road ♪ ♪ It's me and you and the Holy Ghost ♪ ♪ I hear the call, we're getting close ♪ ♪ Around the bend there's a signpost ♪ ♪ The places, faces, to the moon and its phases ♪ ♪ This melody keeps us alive ♪ ♪ Have guitar will travel ♪ ♪ Have guitar will travel (always, always, always) ♪ ♪ I have guitar will travel ♪ [upbeat music] - Funding for Have Guitar Will Travel World is provided by: [gentle music] - Sometimes, arriving in a new place without any preconceived notions of where you are is very helpful, magical in fact.

Everything becomes a fresh, new experience since you've no reference to compare it to.

For me, being in Wales the first time was certainly one of those moments.

I was here at the invitation of Paul Brett, an English classic rock, electric, and 12 string guitarist, and also guitar designer to visit his adopted hometown in Wales, Pwllheli.

Or Pwllheli.

I'm still not quite sure how to say it, but it's spelled P-W-L-L-H-E-L-I.

So actually, my first challenge of being here was just learning how to say the name of the town.

- Pwllheli - Pwllheli - Pwllheli - Pwllheli - Pwllheli - Pwllheli - Pooo-wllh-eli - Oooo... - Purse out your lips a bit more.

- But more on that later, the Welsh language, though very old in origin, is still very much a part of everyday life here.

I did know that Wales was steeped in the lore of fantasy, dungeons, dragons, knights, and kings.

And despite being part of the United Kingdom, this country chooses its own King at the National Eisteddfod.

A massive annual gathering of Welsh culture dating back to 1176.

No surprise then, that Wales is called the "Land of Song."

Harmony and part singing are foundational to what we know as the Welsh Sound of its folk, choral, and religious music.

Whether a modern session involves bards or brass bands, Welsh music today is a thriving scene of Welsh language lyricism from rock and jazz to pop, electronica and even reggae.

So, my friend Paul, invited me to a local Friday night session in the gorgeous Pwllheli Marina, home of the National Welsh Sailing Academy and Event Center.

I found myself at my own eight-step bar.

It was a jam night featuring local North Wales artists, from folk rock instrumentalists and singer-songwriters, to the sounds of gypsy jazz.

And even a newly formed ukulele band in its very first public performance in a taste of Welsh hospitality.

For me, music is always the key to open the door to explore more and maybe even learn to speak a bit of Welsh too.

[audience clapping] [seagulls cawing] - My first key opened the gates surrounding Wales' most famous medieval, yet vibrant town, Carnarvon.

In 1282, England's King Edward I defeated Llywelyn the Last, who truly was the last real prince of Wales.

And so, Edward built this fortification to help control the newly conquered area, and its medieval walls surround Old Carnarvon to this day.

So, as I made my way through these ancient gates in my search for the sounds of Wales, I was called to follow the haunting voices that lured me from jam to jam and place to place.

I ended up facing the great Welsh dragon.

And that dragon is named after the patron saint of Wales, St. David.

And I found that rugged identity in Steve Pablo Jones, a painter, singer-songwriter, and a Carnarvon native.

I got to sit down with Steve, along with his bandmates, and had a chance to have a bit of a jam and conversation.

But little did I expect to be singing in Welsh too.

[singing in Welsh] [guitar playing] - How long have you been here?

I mean, this is- did you grow up in this area?

- I grew up in the area and started off a little place three miles out of town, called Quay Bow.

I was an artist even at a young age and I settle- I settle too good around here for some reason.

I just couldn't-couldn't get it.

It's taking me till now, coming back full circle to-to get it.

- Well, when did you start, when did you start playing- is it instruments, too at a young age?

- I started, I started playing instruments when I was about 16.

The reason I started playing guitar was to write songs.

And my heart suffered a bit, ah, for love because I threw myself totally into music.

So, I went to the Blues Festival with some work and it was just like, just sold them all.

Twenty years later, I- I still go around the Blues Festivals.

- Right - But now I get to play.

- That's the best of both worlds, you get to play.

- Absolutely, you can hear.

- What more could you want?

- Yeah.

Exactly.

- Well, let's, let's see if we can do a song or something together, um.

- Yeah.

How, how's it with your tuning?

I mean- (Ah, well-) I'll play anything and you can join in with your- - Well, if you want to do that, I could probably re-tune or- or I can, you know, I can- - Can I play blues?

- Nah.

- Right.

- Sort of- (bending note) oh, don't do that.

[guitar tuning] [singing] [strumming guitar] - Harmonies.

[singing harmony together] [laughing] - That's great you can do that.

I've got a bass voice, so I can't do those things.

- I-I love harmony.

- There's a-a strange thing with art.

He's talking about a chord in-in painting.

And there's a, there's a color coordination chord.

And just for example, ah, the old masters sometimes would, ah, prime their canvases in a, uh, uh, burnt umber, same as there- there are notes in C. - Alright.

- You've got different colors in these, in these things that just suit a certain color.

- Really?

- It's really interesting.

- To learn that there are chords in painting, just like in music, is fascinating.

Frankly, it doesn't surprise me.

So, as I got to the end of my time with Steve and his bandmates, I was diving in and singing in a language I didn't understand.

But translated from Welsh meaning, "What will we do to make the world better?"

I couldn't imagine a better question we should all ask ourselves.

[background music playing] - I realized that I had connected with this place, and these guys, in a way that was far richer and deeper than I ever expected.

[singing and music playing] - Because once you experience harmony with someone, it changes you.

[all talking] [banjo strumming] - The next day, I heard a call from another voice of Wales.

I'd been invited to the Gypsy Jazz Jam at the Royal Welsh Yacht Club.

It was really just a few steps away from Steve's art studio, right within these medieval walls.

Beforehand, I had a unique opportunity to visit and learn more about this very special place from Graham Messenger, the longtime steward of the Yacht Club.

- You ordered this day, didn't you?

- We did.

[laughing] - So this is the old Watergate.

Yeah.

The walls- [inaudible] - Yeah.

- I mean, so all the goods used to be brought in here today, used to be at Portcullis on down the other side with doors.

It's called, Porth yr Aur.

This Porth yr Aur means, golden gates.

And the other reason it's called golden gates was that as all the goods were coming in and going out, - Right.

They had to pay excise duty.

- This circuit of walls studded with eight towers and two gateways survives almost complete.

The east, or land gate, is matched at the opposite end of High Street by the west or water gate, which could only be approached from the sea in the 13th century.

- Wow.

- This balcony is part of the Barbican.

It's a multi-story fortified outpost or gateway at the outer perimeter of a city or castle which was used to defend the entrance.

- This is actually a fort.

They call it Fort Bella.

It's built to protect the Straits against Americans.

- Mhm.

Really?

- Yeah.

[bad audio quality] - Well, I guess it didn't work I'm here.

[laughs] - Yeah, a chap called John Paul Jones was... - Oh, yeah.

- Ah, he was a privateer, I think, in his title.

- Wow.

- Because the channel that lets the, uh, straight in this end, is very narrow.

But if they did get through, we have these guns to- - Yeah.

[laughing] - So they never came here.

- Well, that chap was more than just a privateer.

In America, he's often been called, the father of the U.S. Navy.

During the Revolutionary War, Captain John Paul Jones and his ship, the USS Ranger wreaked havoc on the British coastline in April of 1778.

His exploits represented the Continental Navy's few significant victories during the war.

John Paul Jones became an important symbol of the American spirit and served as an inspiration for the permanent establishment of the U.S. Navy after the revolution.

- You'll notice if you've been to many castles in the UK Most of the stairways go- This one goes anti-clockwise.

- Yeah.

- The reason is that in a castle you're always defending from beneath.

(Right.)

- Because you've got really high walls or towers.

So you arrive here, moving your sword.

- Yeah.

No, there's no moving.

- Oh, yeah.

- Much freer arm.

- Yeah, I'm dead.

- Hit people.

- Yeah, there's no getting through.

- Yeah.

- And then, because then you'd have to figure out how to get down.

- I'm chopping your legs away while you're trying to come- - Ow, that hurts.

[laughing] - Oh, God.

- As I was thankfully making my way down uninjured from the roof of the Barbican, I gained quite a perspective on battle tactics, fortress architecture, and the revolutionary history of Wales and even America.

But today, the castle is a welcoming place, by land or by sea.

Tourists, boating enthusiasts, and musicians all gather here.

In recent times, at least by European standards, 1847, actually, the Royal Welsh Yacht Club moved into the Barbican or Watergate and has been here ever since.

I'd been invited to what's called the Gypsy Jazz Jam, which somehow seemed fitting for a place home to stories of global adventures on the open horizon.

And the people telling these stories are as diverse as the yacht club flags from around the world lining these walls.

But they all seem to have a common yearning that draws them to this mystical place.

And now I started to feel it too.

It was a strong pull deeper into the lair of the Welsh dragon.

And so deeper I go.

[inaudible chatting] - Driving through the foothills of Snowdonia National Park, I was struck by the lore and the landscape that's connected to it.

Together they form the foundation of Welsh identity.

A lore that lives today.

On the banks of this lake, rests a massive nod to the legend of King Arthur.

- I'm not King Arthur today.

- The story goes that Arthur's knights are waiting here in these mountain caves, ready for the call to rid the country of the Saxons.

The Saxons are the same people, I might add, who dubbed these Celtic people Welsh, an Anglo-Saxon word meaning, foreigners, even in their own land.

I was introduced to the Welsh identity through sounds reflecting the true meaning of Eisteddfod, a sitting-together.

That included sitting together around a kitchen table with the musician's Meg and Neil for their regular Kaylee or jam session.

- If you were to play a song that you think would epitomize what it means to-to-to be from Wales- - Welsh music in general.

- Calon Lan- Calon Lan.

- Yeah.

- Because if you've got a strong chapel man... - Yes.

Right.

- And the hymn singing is very much part of that.

- So is that a song you could do, like, now or?

- Yeah, we do- should we do the English word version?

"A Miner's Life."

♪ Union miners stand together ♪ ♪ Do not heed the Coal Board's tales ♪ ♪ Keep your hands upon your wages ♪ ♪ And your eyes upon the scale ♪ ♪ (singing in Welsh) ♪ [clapping and cheering] - North Wales is home to what was the largest slate quarry in the world.

With local workers literally turning stone into gold for a privileged few, like here at Penrhyn Castle.

No matter how difficult the working conditions, the Welsh used what was available to both build camaraderie and relieve tedium.

And what was the one instrument available to anyone and everyone?

The human voice.

[chorale singing] - This tradition has carried on into today, and now men's choral singing is among the most famous of all Welsh exports.

[chorale singing] - Music and poetry.

have always been a part of the Welsh landscape, just as much as sheep.

[sheep bleating] - And I was able to visit Studio Eane or Studio One near Bangor and meet with producer Sam Durant.

Sam and his partner, Carrie, invited me to sit down with them and their friend, Reese Perry.

Reese is the guitarist for the Bryn Fôn Band.

His collaboration with Bryn has been at the center of the Welsh language music scene for more than 35 years.

- Sam and I were talking too about the first time we visited- was he was sh-showing me the different bands he works with and all in Welsh, and- - The gigging circuit is strong, that network is partly related to how the Estelwood code goes forth from north to south.

- I remember being on buses going traveling as-as a young teenager.

- Yeah.

- Going with the Cymdeithas yr Iaith which is the National Language Society.

- It goes back to tradition goes back to, um, the 7th century, 6th, 7th century where you had people like Tulley Asim.

- You tell the story because I don't know it.

[laughing] - Well, it-it's the first, ah, poem in the Oxford Book of the Welsh Verse is-is by a poet called, Aneirin.

A poet who was a-a court's poet probably.

In Wales of old, it's-it's funny, I was thinking about this recently, you know, music and poetry has always been really, really important.

It's part of us.

I couldn't think of any other country if I was watching football.

At the end of the program there would be one of our main poets.

They-they wrote a-a poem there and then in the old traditional form to present.

And it was read out on a sports program.

And that just happens all the time, doesn't it, in-in Wales?

- So if I'm a budding Welsh writer, poet, like is there a- the form, is there like a thing that everybody knows?

- So in-in the Nationalist Edvard, for example, I think the old way is the chair.

- It's the chair - You win a chair and the new way where you win a crown.

They are the two main ceremonies, aren't they, in the Nationalist Edvard.

- You'll be sat, they'll be told to sit in the chair and then the-the Sword of Peace will be held with them and we'd all chant, you know, "Yes, we want peace."

Then they'll be honored by the Corn Hirlas.

You've mentioned about the Corn Hirlas, which is the horn of fertility or something, isn't it?

It's like a big, big horn with flowers on 'em.

[laughing] - This is so fascinating to me.

I mean, it's like Gandalf could show up or something, you know?

[laughing] - But it's, but it's, but it's it's more realistic than that.

It's-it's giving thanks back to the roots, you know, the, well, it's nature, but it's not, it's not magic.

- No, but- - You know, but this, but this-this's the deal and a truth in there somewhere.

- Yeah, absolutely.

- Although it does sound a bit absurd at times.

- Absurd, absolutely magical, and breathtaking.

And everything I've learned about Wales, from its land and people to their history and traditions, I'm wondering where else in the world are words, poetry, and music, so beautifully celebrated.

It's certainly encapsulated in the anthem, Imá Ó Hí, or We're Still Here.

♪ [Imá Ó Hí song] ♪ - Known as the second Welsh national anthem, this song reflects the pride and fortitude of the Welsh people, celebrating their language and culture from the ancient Britons to today.

♪ [Imá Ó Hí song] ♪ - Awesome.

[clapping] - Oh, that's awesome.

[clapping] - So how old is this place?

- After all this chasing the magical Welsh dragon in North Wales, I visited the chapel's studio of Paul Brett and his partner Michele Breeze back in Pwllheli.

Paul's path as a rock guitarist led him from the stages and studios of London in the late 60's and 70's to become a designer of world class guitars.

While Michele's fame as Evita and in Jesus Christ Superstar led her to travel the world, produce, direct, compose, and keep on creating.

[guitar strumming] - How long have you been playing the twelve string?

I mean, not that it's a transition, but- - Oh, it is a transition.

Because I spent most of my early life professionally playing with a lot of bands, playing electric le-lead guitar.

I-I was one of the top session guys in the 60s.

I heard a guy called, Johnny Joyce play a Guild 12-string.

And I thought, God, why am- why am I carrying all this gear around for, you know?

So, I became friends with John, and, uh, we-we formed a duo and I developed my own style.

I-I wanted to play a bit more classical.

You know, you get the 12-string bug.

I've had it ever since.

Yeah, I'm interested in making the sounds from the instrument.

And, you know, it's what I do well.

Here I am today, still designing guitars.

I've got nineteen different models out now.

All I care about is what, whether it's playable up the neck and wha- and what comes out of the-.

[guitar strums] - Right.

- What comes out of the sound hole, you learn a lot from watching people.

- Oh yeah.

- Don't close your mind, you never know everything.

- Well, it's true, you don't know everything.

None of us do.

Not even when the love of your life will come knocking at your door.

- I met her in '82 when she'd just come back from playing in Evita in New Zealand.

Dave Watts who was the-the musical director of Evita.

- In London, I rang him and said, "I've written these lyrics."

He said, "Oh yes," he said, "I'm in the studio, "not far from you, ah, recording another album "with Paul Brett".

But I didn't know who he was.

I didn't know what he looked like or anything.

So, he said, "I'll meet-I'll meet you at his-his studio up the road."

[chuckles] And he said, "What are you here for?"

And I said, "Oh, Dave Watts, is, um, he's going to write "some music for me, I think, of my lyrics."

And he said, "Oh, let's have a look at them then".

So, I let him have a look at the lyrics.

And he immediately, within that hour, he wrote the music for every one of my songs.

I had about half a dozen there.

- And work together they did.

Giving life to some pretty iconic figures with serious ties to Wales.

- Years later, when we, Paul and I were together, we-I said I'd like to write a musical about Queen Boudica.

And eventually, I found an account of Queen Boudica's actions in a very ancient Welsh book.

And it said that she actually died in battle.

She didn't die by killing herself and her daughters.

And so, I re- I rewrote the musical to reflect the Celtic side of it.

- Here in their workshop, it's even more apparent that there's virtually no limit to the imagination.

These costumes certainly tell a story.

Michele's a true alchemist, a dreamweaver, transforming imagination into reality.

- I'm rehearsing that at the moment, yes- - That is the first.

- Yeah.

- And that's a one-woman show, twenty-five costume changes.

- On the stage.

- On stage costume changes.

- Her writing, acting, singing, and producing, brings epic characters to life, giving voice to both cats and clowns.

The Celtic warrior Boudica and even the entire reign of Queen Elizabeth I as a young regent to the final speech of her life.

- Where's the queen that all should fear?

Get in your gear, Sanctus.

I need to find Sanctus.

[singing] - Between their artistic careers, their partnership, and their work with the charity Guitars for Vets, Paul and Michele certainly have changed history.

- It's all based around music bringing people together.

- Exactly.

- Which is what music's for, isn't it?

- It is.

- Which why, you give somebody a bit of wood, with a bit of steel and-.

[guitar strums] and off, and off they go, you know.

- Well, thank you, both of you, and this is an amazing experience here, and how do you say it- your town?

- Oh, Pwllheli.

- Yeah, that place.

[laughing] - Thank you, can you play us out on something?

- After experiencing the majesty of all these voices, it hit me.

[guitar strums] The people I've met, the sounds I've heard, are all the sounds of Wales: passionate, alluring, magical, and independent.

Truly, this is the voice of the dragon.

And now, my guitar and I set out in search of the next bright light on the horizon Letting the musical conversation be our guide.

[instrumental music] - Pwllheli - Pwllheli - Purse out your lips a bit more.

[instrumental music] - Funding provided by... [outro theme music]