Beginner's Guide to Scottish Gaelic Singer Julie Fowlis
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BEGINNER’S GUIDE the ground for the opportunities of Fowlis’ BEST ALBUMS generation, she has become a striking polymath Though she would Mar a Tha Mo Chridhe – working with all the key musicians of the softly deny it, Julie (Machair Records, 2005) Scottish Gaelic scene as well as further afield in The album that launched Ireland, North America and other Celtic Fowlis has become a Fowlis on her solo career, regions; building a major presence as one of the featuring perhaps the most widely heard Gaelic song ever – ‘Tha Mo most well-known solo Gaelic-singing key figurehead for Ghaol Air Àird A’ Chuain’ (My Love is on The musicians; and developing a parallel career as a the revival of High Seas), later used on the trailer for the broadcaster and presenter of folk music. Pixar film Brave. Reviewed in #30. Brought up until her mid-teens on North Scottish Gaelic Uist, Fowlis imbibed singing, dancing and Cuilidh (Machair Records, 2007) piping almost as early as language itself. Like The 2008 deluxe edition of all children in the still tight-knit Outer threading together the sister cultures of this award-winning second Hebridean communities, she was immersed in Scottish Gaelic and Irish traditions. album features a second disc the musical and creative culture to the extent Fowlis has also been accompanied by a core of live recordings from that year’s Celtic that her path to music degrees at the group of exceptional traditional musicians in Connections festival, including her Gaelic language version of the Beatles’ ‘Blackbird’. University of Strathclyde and Sabhal MÒr her solo career. These include Duncan A Top of the World review in #43. Ostaig can appear almost inevitable. Chisholm, one of the finest fiddle players It was while at Strathclyde that she met four working today, renowned bodhrán player Live at Perthshire musicians at the nearby Royal Scottish Martin O’Neill, and Irish guitarist Tony Byrne. Amber Academy of Music (now the Royal She has also played and recorded with the (Machair Records, 2011) With the masterful quintet of Conservatoire of Scotland) and formed the finest traditional musicians from across the Fowlis, Doorley, Chisholm, band DÒchas. While they released two studio Celtic world, including Capercaillie’s Donald O’Neill and Byrne, this hour-long set is a albums to much acclaim, their second album Shaw and Karen Matheson, Gaelic singer great opportunity to hear the warmth and was released in 2005 – the year everything Kathleen MacInnes, piper Michael conviviality of her live performances changed. It was the year that saw Fowlis release McGoldrick, fiddler John McCusker, Planxty’s recorded at the Pitlochry Festival Theatre. Reviewed in #75. her first solo album, Mar a Tha Mo Chridhe Dónal Lunny and US singer Mary Chapin (reviewed in #30), and win the Gaelic Singer of Carpenter. Fowlis is also about to embark on Gach Sgeul – the Year at the Scots Trad Music Awards. The Lost Words Spell Songs project (read more Every Story If this was her coming out ceremony as a on p83), set to tour next February. (Machair Records, 2014) solo star, there was much more to come. She Fowlis has been a rich collaborator in Backed by her regular four-piece band, this is an won the Horizon Award for emerging talent at projects that explore the margins and the unadulterated collection of pared down the 2006 BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards, scooped spaces in which traditions and identities traditional Gaelic language folk songs, Gaelic Singer of the Year once more at the merge, including being part of Aly Bain and making a confident statement off the back of 2007 Scots Trad Music Awards alongside Jerry Douglas’ Transatlantic Sessions on her Disney mainstream success. A Top of the Album of the Year for her second solo release, several occasions. But her work has often World review in #99. Craig Mackay Craig Cuilidh, and in 2008 recorded a Scottish Gaelic focused back in on her roots, including a alterum version of the Beatles’ ‘Blackbird’ for MOJO multimedia project in 2011 on Heiskeir – the (Machair Records, 2017) magazine as she won Folk Singer of the Year at islands of her ancestors, a residency at the This latest album is an the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards. Tobar an Dualchais/Kist o Riches digital exploration of what lies It was as if everything she touched was archive of Gaelic and Scots recordings and a beyond and features a duet with Mary Chapin Carpenter, an Annie gold. She has since become co-host of the BBC contribution to the 2016 Decca release, The Briggs song that is the first English language awards, alongside Mark Radcliffe, as well as a Lost Songs of St Kilda. song on a Fowlis release and a Galician folk Julie Fowlis regular broadcaster on BBC Scotland and Most recently, Fowlis has developed the song. Reviewed in #133. BBC Alba – the Gaelic language broadcaster audio-visual stage show An Treas Suaile (The A leading light in the Scottish Gaelic music scene, the singer is also a tireless that was launched in 2008. Perhaps the Third Wave) with fiddler Duncan Chisholm, to collaborator, as finds out as he looks back over her career crowning moment of her ascendancy – in box be performed at An Lanntair arts centre in IF YOU LIKE JULIE Nathaniel Handy office dollars if not in musical terms – was in Stornoway (on November 9 and 10) as part of FOWLIS, THEN TRY: 2012, when she sang the lead songs for the the centenary programme commemorating Disney Pixar film Brave, set in a Braveheart- the tragic loss of over 200 men returning to Salt House Undersong or much of the 20th century, minority supposedly the language of betterment. Skye the Monach Islands (or Heiskeir in Gaelic), esque Scotland of US fantasies. the Hebrides on the HMY Iolaire in the (Make Believe Records, 2018) and marginal identities were shunned is now home to Sabhal MÒr Ostaig – the only which is a tiny three-island chain west of Such personal acclaim might give the aftermath of World War I. It is the latest For sheer Highland and in pursuit of strong, homogenous states public higher education college where Scottish North Uist with nothing whatever to protect impression of an isolated talent, but Fowlis example of her ability to lead and sustain a Island spirit and youthful F enquiry that has the stamp and a standardised modernity. On a recent Gaelic is the sole medium of instruction. them from the ocean swells. couldn’t be further from the naval-gazing solo fragile culture and tradition with a sensitivity of Fowlis about it, this trio of fiddler Lauren visit to the Isle of Skye, I was told by young Julie Fowlis – an alumnus of the college – is Though she would softly, self-deprecatingly singer-songwriter. Most fundamentally, her that allows other voices and other stories to MacColl, harmonium player Jenny Sturgeon Gaelic-speaking islanders of how their own a one-woman symbol of the changes that have deny it, she has become a key figurehead for success story is as much the success story of shine through her own. and guitarist Ewan MacPherson are hard to parents not only couldn’t speak the language, taken place. Hailing from North Uist in the the revival of Scottish Gaelic. While an earlier her husband and musical partner, Éamon beat. Reviewed in #136. but were actively discouraged from doing Outer Hebridean chain of islands, this sea salt- generation of musicians formed bands such as Doorley. The laconic bouzouki player has been + ALBUM Allt (with Éamon Doorley, Zoe so. It was not spoken at home and in school flecked Atlantic identity runs deep in her Runrig (founded in 1973, the same year as the at Fowlis’ side since her debut in 2005, Conway and John McIntyre) is out now and it was punishable to deviate from English – veins. Her mother’s family originally lived on Sabhal MÒr Ostaig) and Capercaillie, and laid crafting their musical trajectory and will be reviewed in the next issue, #144 78 SONGLINES › ISSUE 143 WWW.SONGLINES.CO.UK WWW.SONGLINES.CO.UK ISSUE 143 › SONGLINES 79.