Lowri Evans

Lowri Evans (Low-ree) was born in the Welsh market town of Haverfordwest in Pembrokeshire. Apart from a short absence spent studying for a degree in Newcastle and some time travelling, her home remains in Wales.

With her partner and music associate Lee Mason she lives in Newport, Pemborkeshire.  

A musical child Lowri started singing lessons at the age of seven which in turn led to her becoming a member of the choir at Newport Primary School. The choir won the Eisteddfod Yr Urdd (Youth Eisteddfod) a national music competition culminating with an appearance at the Albert Hall in London. During her junior school years Lowri was also receiving piano lessons. At the age of eight she took her first tentative steps into music composition.  

Her association with choirs and music in general continued into her teens at Preseli School in Crymych in Pembrokeshire playing the lead in ‘Annie’ and competing in numerous Eisteddfods both at local and national level as a member of the school choir. Alongside her contribution to the school choir’s success Lowri came second in the solo section and third in the folk singing sections of the Eisteddfod Yr Urdd. Proving that she could perform as a member of a group and stand on her own as a solo performer: a sign of things to come!

At the age of 15 Lowri performed in the school group ‘Criws’ which won the band section of the Eisteddfod Yr Urdd for two consecutive years. During her time with ‘Criws’ she starting writing songs; it was with one of Lowri’s own compositions that the group won S4C TV’s ‘Best Band in Wales’under eighteen competition. Their prize was the opportunity to record a three track demo at Fflach Studios in Cardigan.

Lowri left Wales in 1997 for Newcastle to obtain a degree in popular, commercial and jazz music. In her second year in Newcastle she formed a five piece female group called ‘Stella’. The band existed for four years releasing two E.P's and winning a place to play at Leeds Festival. ‘Stella’ with a final line up that included two males disbanded in 2002 and Lowri having finished her studies went travelling throughout South America with her sister for a time before returning to live in Wales.

Back home in Pembrokeshire she picked up her music again playing locally and releasing an E.P entitled ‘Any Other Day’ recorded originally with former ‘Stella’ guitarist Howard Hedger whilst she was living in Newcastle.  The C.D. was sold locally in Wales bringing Lowri once more to the attention of musician and record producer Wyn Jones of Fflach Studios. Wyn had seen her play previously at Fflach Studios when her school band ‘Criws’ won the SC4 Television ‘Best Bands’ competition. 

Wyn offered Lowri some additional studio time and thus began the start of her relationship proper with Fflach Studios; later in her career she would join their record label.

With a new demo in hand Lowri set about publicising her music thus creating more awareness of her work. What followed was a steady stream of bookings from venues and festivals such as Small Nations Festival and the Celtic Blue Rock Festival. Added to this there were invitations from local radio stations to play live in session. In 2005 Lowri contributed her song ‘Sorry Smokey’ to the C.D. ‘Pembrokeshire Acoustic Sessions’ it was during this time that she first met her partner Lee Mason. During 2006 when Lowri was performing in some Welsh language shows she realised she was missing out on performing to a significant section of her own people and culture. It was then that she decided to translate her songs into Welsh and start singing and recording in both the English and Welsh language, releasing her first Welsh Album "Clyw SIbrydion (Hear Whipsers)" in Summer 2006 on Fflach's RASP label. Since then she has gone on to release a number of albums in both Welsh and English languages.