julie fowlis with bagad kemper

Here's a lively bit of music for the new year -- and music you'll not have heard everywhere, at that. Julie Fowlis, who sings in Scots Gaelic, offers a tradtional song from her home in Scotland's far northwest, and she's backed not by her usual two acoustic musicians, but by a really big backing band, the Breton ensemble Bagad Kemper. They were playing at the Royal Glasgow Concert Hall.






there's more about Julie Fowlis here

julie fowlis on the bagpipes

Julie Fowlis is a Gaelic singer who's winning awards and acclaim across the world for he work. She grew up in North Uist, in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland, where she also learned to play whistles and, as you'll see in the clip below, bagpipes.

Fowlis is celebrating the US release of her second solo album, Cuilidh, with a brief tour in the United States beginning next week, which includes appearances at the Lotus Festival in Bloomington, Indiana, and Club Passim in Cambridge, Massachusetts. She's threatening to bring out the pipes at some point along the way...

tour schedule

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Music Road: now playing: Julie Fowlis: Mar A Tha Mo Chridhe/As My Heart Is

Music Road: now playing: eist: songs in their native language

Singing in Scots: Julie Fowlis

Julie Fowlis, from North Uist in the Outer Hebrides, has proved one of the fastest rising young stars of Gaelic music in the last three years. This is a sort of home video version, certainly, of a gig in Dingwall, Scotland. The ending sounds like the tape was out of timing, but that's a minor flaw. Along with the video of Cathie Ryan singing in Irish, below, it does give you an idea of what singing in the Celtic languages is like when done by two of the best at it. Even if you've no clue what they are talking about, they hold your attention and they communicate. Whether or not that helps you think about the Dylan project, that's up to you.

More good stuff on Scots music at http://www.bbc.co.uk/scotland/music/celticconnections/