Gaelic came late for vocalist

Twice-nominated Scotland’s Gaelic singer of the year, Maeve Mackinn on didn’t growup speaking Caledonia’s mother tongue.

The Glasgow-based vocalist first took a shine to the language in high school following frequent trips to the Isle of Jura with her family. A love of traditional song led to academic study at age 17 as she eventually majored in Gaelic song at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama, graduating in 2004.

A year later, she won a scholarship to the Sabhal Mor Ostaig Gaelic college on the Isle of Skye. This put her career aims into high gear. “While most kids in Scotland get some amount of exposure to Gaelic in school, it so happened that I was fortunate to take an interest in it at a time when it was on the upswing across the nation,” says Mackinnon.

“Going to Sabhal Mor Ostaig really put me through the paces — a lot of musicians and scholars go through there — because it’s so hardcore that you can’t ever speak in English while you are there. It was a really good way to quickly learn and develop in the language. That gives you a much stronger emotional connection to the song you can convey to your audience and I put it in my debut album.”

That was 2007’s Don’t Sing Lovesongs. Nominated in multiple categories, the recording won Up and Coming Artist of the Year at that year’s Scots Trad Music Awards. Numerous projects followed, including turns on such well-named releases as Red Hot Chili Pipers: Bagrock to the Masses, theatre and opera work and various musical groups.

This year she released her second solo album, titled Once Upon An Olive Branch. It features Scottish and Irish traditional songs and her first recorded original number, the title track.

Aside from the tour that brings her trio to Vancouver to appear in a co-headlining show with Cape Breton singer Mary Jane Lamond and fiddler Wendy MacIsaac at CelticFest, other musical projects include a “supergroup” of sorts with fiddler Lauren MacColl and multi-instrumentalist Ewan MacPherson and fronting folktronic crew Sketch.