THE Wyeside Arts Centre at Builth Wells welcomes back Jamie Smith’s Mabon this Saturday night, November 24, the exciting Wales-based folk band celebrating two InterCeltic decades of performances with a tour to accompany the release of their new live album “”Mabon Twenty Live!” on Easy on the Records.

Born’ in Wales, brewed in Brittany and now the central characters in a global musical success story, Jamie Smith’s Mabon have played more than 1,000 gigs in four continents and wowed audiences from their native Wales to WOMAD, Scotland’s Celtic Connections to Brittany’s Festival Interceltique de Lorient and Mexico’s Ollin Kan to Malaysia’s Rainforest World Music Festival.

The five piece band headed by remarkable accordionist, composer and songwriter Jamie Smith who has led the band from the start with percussionist Iolo Whelan, now together with fiddler Oli Wilson-Dickson, bass player Matt ’The Hat’ Downer, and newest member acoustic guitarist Paul Rogers. The live album also includes former members fiddler Gareth Whelan, flautist and Uileann piper Calum Stewart, Isle of Man bouzouki player Adam Rhodes and guitarist Derek Smith.

The mammoth tour started in Bangor on October 26, and has already included Canterbury Festival and the Normandy Port en Bressin Festival;, and wil go on to include the Glasgow Celtic Connetions festival in January; The Hive in Shrewsbury on February 17; and WOMAD festivals in Australia and New Zealand, as well as playing their first Canadian festival at Sunfest, Ontario); and embarking on a European tour.

They delve into every Celtic corner, brushing jigs and reels with a slick contemporary veneer their music melds Breton an dro, French mazurka, Galician muniera and shades of jazz and klezmer in an exuberant, infectious, feelgood show “Twenty” pulls numbers .

“Twenty” pulls numbers from almost all their six albums and live performances captured all over the UK in their spring 2018 tour which included the Mid Wales Pavilion at Llandrindod Wells and the Victoria Hall, Llanwrtyd Wells as well as the Latitudes Festival.

Stand-outs among the 12 tracks include a version of the audience favourite “The Tale of Nikolai, the Dancing Bear” with Oli’s fiddle providing a mournful opening, then accompanied by the accordion to become an energetic Slavic dance; while “Drum’n’Breizh” , a funky blast of Breton-inspired drum and bass grooves.

Two brand new tune sets are included with the excellent mix of three jigs led by the action-film inspired “Jig Trouble in Little Blaina”; and “Kingfisher and Magnet”, with its magical tone winding itself around an unorthodox shopping trip.

The album opens with a stirring mix of three tunes led by “The Ridiculous Thinker” and ending with “Homage to the Fromage” which coincidentally was one of the opening tunes of the new Jaywalkers album reviewed last week.

“Yr Ennyd” is one of the album’s two Welsh language songs. This call to stop and think before making a move; is followed later by the melodramatic “Caru Pum Merch ((Loving Five Girls)” following love through different stages of womanhood.

Jamie’s accordion cuts across a pounding rock beat before morphing into another set of dance tunes on “Frank’s Reels”, while “Hummingbird” is a graceful, pastoral tune; “The Gordano Ranter” was inspired by a late-night motorway stop; and “The Accordionist’s Despair” sees Jamie testing himself with a fiendishly difficult composition.

The album ends with a finale incorporating “Elephant Graveyard March” dating back to their first album in 2000, with a modern reel and an instrumental versiion of a traditional Welsh song.

It’s an album that will have you dancing around the house if you are not able to see them for real at the Wyeside on Saturday. Tickets cost £14 from the box office on 01982 552555.