As for Julie Fowlis singing and the music on the disc, it's just what you'd hope for. She has a strong clear voice with a good range that allows her to run up and down the octaves at will and as needed. More important is how expressive her voice is and how it can load sufficient meaning into a song's lyric that it doesn't matter that we don't understand a single word in the language. Best of all there's not an electronic instrument to be heard on the disc as flutes, pipes, bass, accordion, mandolin, and guitar handle most of the duties with only the addition of a bouzouki giving it a somewhat exotic flavour.
When you listen to the music on Cuilidh, you're listening to the stories of the people who have lived on the islands off the coast of Scotland known as the Hebrides for thousands of years. This isn't an easy life, scratching a living from the North Atlantic and wind swept land, and most of it is still spent on the business of survival. What little time they have for leisure is given over to playing the music that tells them who they are. If you can't recognize that as magic then I feel sorry for you. Luckily, Julie Fowlis is willing to share a little of this real Gaelic magic with anybody willing to hear and appreciate it.
Article comments