In this final episode of the Green Man Podcast 2025, we're joined by the award-winning Welsh comedian, Anna Thomas, in conversation with Cassandra Jenkins, ahead of her set at the Far Out stage. We're also joined by Jacob Alon and John Grant backstage at the Walled Garden. "Anna Thomas is an award-winning comedian, originally hailing from Carmarthenshire, South Wales. She wrote and starred in ‘Lady Bigfoot’, a short film that premiered on BBC One Wales at 10:40pm on 4th July, and became the most watched comedy short on BBC iPlayer in 2023. ‘Lady Bigfoot is a tender and utterly charming portrait of an outsider’s yearning. And it’s very funny too with little jokes squeezed in where they have no right to be’ ★★★★ Chortle. Anna also wrote and starred in the radio sitcom ‘Gulls’ which is currently available on BBC Sounds." Hailing from a musical family in New York, Cassandra Jenkins learnt to play the guitar from a young age. She's released 4 studio albums, with her most recent - My Light, My Passage receiving critical acclaim. While making her third album, My Light My Destroyer, Cassandra Jenkins set up a soundcloud page for unfinished songs called "Valley of Despair". Loneliness and its corresponding shades and images - blue orbits, delphinium blue, dawn— feature heavily on the new album. But just as on the New York songwriter's previous record, An Overview on Phenomenal Nature, her superpower is in celebrating the poetry of the everyday. Life-affirming stuff, and about as far away from the valley of despair as you could get. Jacob Alon is a Scottish poet, musician and singer, who blends the worlds of ethereal storytelling with music. Initially, they started studying medicine at university, but only found joy through creating music - and how lucky we are. They joined the Green Man family at the Walled Garden on Friday aftenoon. The absurdity of the world on the outside juxtaposed with the world taking place on the inside,* says John Grant of his latest album, The Art of the Lie. "That fascinates me, the ability to capture what it really feels like to be a human." It could apply to much of his output since 2010: inducing comfort in the candid, and expressing that via handsome baritone, lubricated grooves, slightly sordid stickiness. and everything from opulent electronica to folk strum. The Art of the Lie borrows - or rather amends - a title of a book by Trump, and owes much to funk, vocoder, the Bladerunner soundtrack, Dead Can Dance, and Devo.
