Ym mis Ebrill, mi nes i rhyddhau albym newydd, sef Stuck in Belgium // In April, I released a new album, Stuck in Belgium. 

Dyma hi / here it is!

I will share some behind the scenes photos and write a bit about it... in the meantime, here's the press release I wrote:

Worldwide Welshman – Stuck in Belgium – Press Release - May 2025
 
Worldwide Welshman is the alias of Liam Rickard, Machynlleth-based singer-songwriter and artist, originally from North Wales. Over the past ten years, Worldwide Welshman and his ever-evolving band have been entertaining audiences in cafés, clubs, pubs, festivals, community gardens, canal boats, pirate ships, squats, living rooms and pavements across the UK, Europe and beyond with their multi-lingual mix of tragi-comic folk pop ballads, party bangers, improvisations, Welsh & international folk, and dark comedy. Worldwide Welshman’s performances touch upon a wide diversity of themes from face-cream to climate change to space tourism, and his music has been featured on Fresh on the Net, and played on Radio Dyfi, Resonance FM, Radio Cymru, and maybe even on 6 Music (at least once??). 

“Stuck in Belgium” is Worldwide Welshman’s first full length studio album. Most of the songs in this collection were written between 2018 and 2023 in London, Ghent, Brussels, Edinburgh and Machynlleth, except for "Waltz with me Darling" (2014, Betws-y-coed) and "Streaker" (2007, Betws-y-coed). In 2015, Rickard moved to London and lived there for 4 and half years. Rickard formed the band Worldwide Welshman & Beyond out of the jamming scene of East London. “Special cream” is one of the songs from this period, made-up in a garden at a house party in North-East London. Another song from this period is “Ble Mae Fy Nghalon i?” which was written with fellow Welsh person in London, Ffion Aynsley.

Worldwide Welshman has collaborated with musicians from all over the world and has participated in many international folk music camps.  The first such camp he attended was the 2016 edition of Ethno England which happened in Oxford. Here, he made friends with Jonas Malfliet, an accordion player and jazz pianist from Ghent, Belgium (Jonas is playing piano on track 2). Through this connection, he visited Ghent and met Jonas’s crew of lovely and talented musicians. They went on to play many gigs together. Rickard composed a number of songs in Belgium, many of which feature on this album. The title of the album comes from the song "See You After Quarantine" (track 2) which was composed in Brussels with Estonian singer Hannelore Karmel, the day after Belgium went into lockdown.

“Stuck in Belgium” was recorded in Our Lady Studio, Borth, except "See You After Quarantine" which was recorded in Ghent, and "Goldfish", recorded in Cardiff and Ghent.