Is your fortune in your name? If you’re Welsh power-folk band Calan, you’d be forgiven for thinking the spirits of the New Year are looking down on you and smiling.

In Welsh, Calan represents ‘new beginnings’. Nos Galan, for example, is New Year’s Eve – the night before the beginning of a new year.

And for Calan the band – which includes virtuoso harpist Shelley Musker Turner from Aberystwyth and Sam Humphreys from Nefyn – 2024 is going to be very special indeed, peppered with huge names such as Sting, Sir Bryn Terfel, Sir Tom Jones, Gregory Porter and many more.

For Shelley, Sam and fellow band members Patrick Rimes, from Bethesda and Bethan Rhiannon from south Wales, it all starts on 2 February with the release of opera legend Sir Bryn’s new album, Sea Songs.

It is already being called a masterpiece featuring Calan, Sting, Fisherman’s Friends and many more.

Music arranger for the entire project is Calan’s award-winning fiddle virtuoso Patrick, who plays on almost all the tracks.

“Everyone makes wishes at this time of year,” says Patrick.

“As a young musician growing up in Eryri, I was constantly looking up at pictures of Bryn Terfel on the walls at school or the county music service... and it would have definitely been my wish to get to share the stage with him one day. So getting to collaborate so closely with him on this record is an absolute dream come true... and Sting isn’t bad either!”

Then, in early July, Calan will share the headlining duties alongside Sir Tom Jones, Katherine Jenkins, and jazz maestro Gregory Porter at a mesmerising week of concerts at the Llangollen International Music Eisteddfod.

Sir Tom headlines on Tuesday, 2 July, Calan on 3 July, with Porter and Jenkins on 5 and 7 respectively.

A series of concerts falling either side of the core week have already been announced including Bryan Adams, Madness, Kaiser Chiefs, Manic Street Preachers, Suede, Paloma Faith, Jess Glynne and Nile Rodgers & Chic.

“When I was very much younger, I used to sit in the car with my dad and tell him I wanted to be a musician,” says Calan’s vocalist, accordion player (and national champion clog dancer) Bethan Rhiannon.

“He told me what a hard path it would be, but I don’t think either of us ever imagined it would lead here.”

Calan’s year of new possibilities continues into the autumn with more good news for the tens of thousands of loyal Calan fans across Wales and the UK. There will be a new album, a hugely anticipated follow-up to the stunning Kistvaen, plus a national tour starting in November.

The band’s name dates back to their early days as street musicians when someone happened to photograph them in front of a sign for a construction company called Calan.

“Who knows whether a name can affect your future,” says Calan’s harpist Shelley. “But in these troubled times we’ll take all the good fortune we can get.”

In fact, there really is a bit of science behind this – the study is called ‘nominative determinism’, literally name-driven outcome.

And, away from the serious stuff, the world is full of funny coincidences such as the New York lawyer Sue Yoo, a checkout cashier whose name tag proudly announces Ka Ching, and BBC weather presenter Sara Blizzard.

Of course, it doesn’t always work. Jaime Sin’s name might have passed unremarked until he rose to become Archbishop of Manila, and became rather better known as Cardinal Sin...