What instrument do you need when you’re composing an Anthem for the Welsh Parliament? How do you make the connection between ancient tradition and modern relevance?

Michael looked to the Celtic ‘Cruit’ harp, whose players, the Crythor, were held in high regard and would sit with the nobility at feasts, alongside the bardic poets.

How about fusing the Cruit with an acoustic-electric guitar?

How about a Harp Guitar?

Harp guitars was developed in the 1700s and have experienced a quiet rennaissance in the past thirty years, with a number of notable players including Muriel Anderson, John Doan, Andy McKee and also Jimmy Page (who used a Gibson Style-’U’), and one of Michael’s favourites, Stephen Bennett.

Michael’s harp is a hybrid instrument with a set of bass strings (Michael specified an extra to make seven in order to reach a bottom E, but swears he still needs one more) as well as the normal six of the everyman axe, which he tunes in various ways. He commissioned a customised Synergy X-20 build from Emerald Guitars in County Donegal, Ireland,  a combination of old and new, precision-engineered from carbon-fibre and topped with plantation-grown Harborica wood. Beautiful in design, shape and technology it is one strand of a Celtic triple-knot that forms our latest project – an English musician with an Irish-crafted instrument in a Welsh setting.