< Back to Reviews

By Peter Kay, Sheffield Telegraph, 6th April 2007

Julie beguiling fans with a tour and second album

BROUGHT up in the Hebrides, Julie Fowlis (right) is starting to make waves much further afield. HEr big breakthrough came in 2006 when she won the Horizon award for the best newcomer in the BBC Radio 2 Awards.

Suddenly the enchanting voice of this Scottish Gaelic singer could be heard by a wider audience, playing live in the UK and in places such as Texas and New York and on mainstream radio.

SHe is aiming to capitalise on the interest with a beguiling second album, Cuilidh (a Gaelic noun meaning a treasury or a secret hiding place for precious things), which features the musical talents of the likes of John McCusker of the Kate Rusby Band, Chris Thile of Nickel Creek and Mark Kelly of Altan. And there is a tour that calls at the Library Theatre in Tudor Square, Sheffield, on Thursday,

Support com from Skyhook, three fine acoustic musicians from Sheffield. Cath James plays fiddle and viola and was a finalist in the BBC Radio 2 Young Tradition Award in 1995; Martin Haywood plays fiddle and guitar; Eoin Teather plays bouzouki, guitar and sings.

They played recently at the Celtic Connections festival in Glasgow and are now being booked for folk festivals this summer.

Skyhook will be at the Rock at Maltby - the successor to the Rockingham Arms Folk Club - the night after the Library Theatre, on Friday April 13.