Album Reviews


24th Mar 2007

The Telegraph

By Colin Randall

Julie Fowlis, Cuilidh

(Spit and Polish/ Shoeshine)

Few singers producing an album entirely in Gaelic could expect to reach anything but the smallest of audiences. Julie Fowlis, from the Outer Hebrides, rises to the challenge in style, turning a set of hypnotic old songs into implausibly accessible music that never seems old-fashioned.

The dynamism of the opening track will ensure airtime and perhaps spread the word to an even wider public than her previous exploits, including a BBC Radio 2 Folk Award.

But the slow ballads are equally impressive, a tribute to the vocal purity and force that overcomes the language obstacle. It can only be a matter of time before one of Fowlis's less obvious inspirations, Madonna, herself something of a folk fan on the quiet, suggests making a record together.

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Cuirmean-ciùil

Tour Dates

29th Oct
PITLOCHRY, SCOTLAND
Pitlochry Festival Theatre
3rd Nov
GATESHEAD, ENGLAND
The Sage Gateshead, St Mary's Square, Gateshead Quays, Gateshead, Tyne and Wear, NE8 2JR
4th Nov
GLASGOW, SCOTLAND
ABC, 300 Sauchiehall Street, Glasgow, G2 3JA Tickets www.ticketweb.co.uk
5th Nov
ABERDEEN, SCOTLAND
Music Hall, Union Street, Aberdeen, AB10 1Q
6th Nov
EDINBURGH, SCOTLAND
Usher Hall, Lothian Road, Edinburgh, EH1 2EA
7th Nov
INVERNESS, SCOTLAND
Eden Court Theatre, Bishops Road, Inverness, IV3 5SA

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