Julie Fowlis

Alterum

Julie Fowlis, Mary Chapin Carpenter (singer); Duncan Chisholm, Greg Lawson, Fiona Stephen, Kobus Frick (violin), Aoife Ní Bhriain (viola), Donal Lunny (bodhrán), Donald Shaw (piano) Machair Records MACH 008 From the outstanding quality of her sixth album Alterum, few listeners would have guessed that Julie Fowlis barely considers herself to be a professional musician. Despite singing so finely in Scottish Gaelic, which she learned while growing up in the bleakly beautiful Outer Hebrides island of North Uist, she made the claim in a recent interview for FROOTS magazine. Most of the songs on this marvellous disc are in Gaelic, with the exception of ‘Camariñas’ in Spanish, as a nod to Celts in the Iberian world, and three in English, including Anne Briggs’ ‘Go Your Way’, of which Fowlis convincingly takes ownership. Her husband Eamon Doorley contributes gorgeous string arrangements, and Donald Shaw’s piano plays a significant role in making the closing ‘Circle about the Moon’ even more beguiling than ‘Òran an Ròin’ (The Seal’s Song). If you have Scottish roots, you may well find yourself very close to sentimental tears in many places, such is the incredible emotive power of this lovely music. ★★★★★