Musician speaks out on ‘double-edged sword’ of tourism in Wales

Nation.Cymru Staff

A Welsh singer-songwriter has spoken about the impact of second homes on communities in one of the country’s most Welsh-speaking areas.

Al Lewis joined BBC Radio Wales presenter Bronwen Lewis on Wednesday 17 June for ‘Live at Your Local’, which sees hosts head to their local pub for an evening of live music.

Born in Pwllheli, Al Lewis has been creating music inspired by Wales, language and belonging for almost two decades. After coming second in 2007’s Cân i Cymru competition, he has since gone on to release seven solo albums.

At the performance, he told Bronwen: “I grew up speaking Welsh and I’m from north west Wales, the Llŷn Peninsula. It’s so far west that we get Irish radio when we turn the car stereo on.”

Al Lewis left Wales after the release of his 2010 album In The Wake and moved to Nashville, where he recorded with Charlie Peacock and musician Alva Leigh.

Now back in Wales, Lewis shared that he has “become more passionate about the place and about where I’m from,” as the conversation turned to the impact of tourism and second-home ownership on local communities.

Al explained: “Probably for 50 years now, half a century, tourism has become the main income source for most people there.

“Obviously with that, tourism brings a lot of benefits but there’s consequences as well. A lot of local people find it hard to get onto the property ladder because a lot of tourists come in and want to buy second homes and holiday lets.

“It’s a double-edged sword because it brings money in but also it means that the community changes.”

Al then played his song, The Farmhouse, the lyrics of which read: “The name on the farmhouse has changed / From the Welsh word I knew To an English domain / And I’m not sure of who is to blame / But it cuts at my culture all the same / When it’s English on the door / But this is Cymru to the core.”

Locals shared their love for the track, with one writing: “Although I want Al Lewis’s Welsh songs, we need these words and these truths to be understood by the English. Extraordinary.”

Another added that the songs from Al, as well as from Tom Jenkins and Laura Evans, had been an “Education for some in the audience.”

The full recording of ‘Live at your local: Bronwen Lewis takes the country show to her local pub in Neath’ took place on 17 June and is available in full here.