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CD Review
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Roots World, CD Review >>
Julie Fowlis
Cuilidh
Shoeshine Records/Cadiz Music (www.shoeshine.co.uk)
The title of Julie Fowlis' latest album can be
translated as "sanctuary" or "secret hiding
place." It's appropriate on more than one level:
Fowlis often sings as if she's cautiously
revealing secrets of some sort; her search for
the traditional Gaelic songs she renders here
often led her to out-of-the-way spots and her own
upbringing took place in the remote islands of
northern Scotland. To say the material on this
album is close to her heart is certainly an
understatement. Gaelic is still widely spoken
where she grew up, though recognition of it as an
official language has been slow going. It seems
to fit Fowlis like a glove, though. Nimbly
cutting loose in a tongue-tripping barrage that
blurs the line between singing and scatting or
intoning as tenderly as if she's singing a
lullaby, she clings to the melodies (provided by
guitar, mandolin, bouzouki, fiddle, pipes,
percussion and the like) and makes every word
seem precious and worth preserving. On the
surface, the songs are about such everyday things
as attractive lads and lasses, local pastimes and
even the handling of manure. I'd bet, however,
that there's deeper meaning at work, and some of
the more cryptic passages in the translated
lyrics would seem to support such an assumption.
But that's a secret of a whole different kind,
adding an element of mystery to the unspoiled
tradition already making this set of songs so pleasing.
By: Tom Orr 12/17/08 >> go there
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