TV alert! 📺

Julie and Éamon will be playing a song for Susan Calman tomorrow night on BBC Scotland alongside Janey Godley, Ashley Storrie, Robert Florence and Joe MacFadden on her new show, Socially Distant.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000hd2h

Tune in at 8.30pm.

Folk on Foot Front Room Festival

**Watch from 2pm today at the Folk on Foot YouTube Channel**

Julie is delighted to be part of this amazing virtual folk festival on Easter Bank Holiday Monday. Supporting UK musicians whose livelihoods have been decimated by the coronavirus lockdown, 50% of all the proceeds will go to the charity Help Musicians UK.

You can donate here: https://www.folkonfoot.com/festival

The festival will have performances from Bella Hardy, Beth Porter plus the Bookshop Band, Jon Boden, Karine Polwart, Kerry Andrew (You Are Wolf), Kris Drever, Lisa Knapp and Gerry Diver, Martin Simpson, Nancy Kerr and James Fagan, Peggy Seeger, Rachel Newton, Sam Lee, Seth Lakeman, Steve Knightley plus Julie and Éamon Doorley. Folk on Foot will stream back to back on their YouTube channel and Facebook page in a virtual festival hosted by Matthew Bannister starting at 1400 on Monday 13th April. You’ll be able to kick back with a foaming pint or a cuppa in a front row seat in your front room and enjoy the show.

BBC World Service: The Cultural Frontline

Julie was recently invited to talk to The Cultural Frontline on the BBC World Service about Gaelic language and song.

Faodaidh sibh èisteachd ris a-rithist aig a’ cheangal gu h-ìosal.

Unlike other BBC services, anyone worldwide can listen at this link below.

Upstream

Tonight on BBC 4 TV at 2030:

Upstream is a new film by the writer Robert Macfarlane and the director Rob Petit. The film, which is shot entirely from the air, follows the course of the River Dee in Scotland all the way to its source in the Cairngorm mountains, the highest of any river in Britain. With a prose poem written especially for the film by Macfarlane (and voiced by Julie) and an original score by the Oscar-nominated composer Hauschka, the film takes as it epigraph the words of the Scottish writer Nan Shepherd (1893-1981): “One cannot know the rivers till one has seen them at their sources”, wrote Shepherd, “but this journey to sources is not to be undertaken lightly.” (The Living Mountain, 1977).

Eerie, hypnotic and experimental, this groundbreaking polyphonic film weaves together field-recordings of the river, and the birds and creatures which live along it, the place-names and stories – dark and light – of the Cairngorms, creating a ‘songline’ that draws the viewer up, against the flow, into wildness, winter and strangeness.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0008z3c

Summer shows

Fresh from her performance at Carnegie Hall, New York, Julie has recently announced two more Summer shows, the Belladrum Tartan Heart Festival (August 3rd) and Live by the Loch (June 1st).

These two festival slots are Julie’s only planned band performances in Scotland this year.

This weekend sees her and the band travel to Gran Canaria for the World Music Festival Música en el Parque

BBC 2 Scotland Celtic Connections Highlights

Julie will be presenting two programmes of musical highlights from the renowned Celtic Connections Festival on BBC 2 Scotland this week. Featuring music from Graham Nash, John Grant, Gretchen Peters, Ímar, Strung and Loudon Wainwright III.

Tuesday 2200 https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0c1r1vm

Thursday 2200 https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0c1r4sz

‘An Treas Suaile’ (The Third Wave)

Just announced – on January 27th 2019, Eden Court Theatre in Inverness will host ‘An Treas Suaile’ (The Third Wave) which I was commissioned to write with fellow musician Duncan Chisholm.  Late on New Year’s Eve 1918, HMY Iolaire set sail from Kyle of Lochalsh carrying nearly 300 seamen home to the Isle of Lewis after the war. But the ship was lost at the entrance to Stornoway Harbour and 201 servicemen perished in one of the worst maritime disasters in modern British history.  Written to commemorate 100 years since the disaster, this is a deeply reflective audio-visual piece which has taken 12 months of research and writing.  It will feature newly composed music, traditional material and archive recordings with onstage visuals and projected images. The title and central concept refers to John Finlay MacLeod, who leapt overboard from the stricken Iolaire with a rope and was carried onto the rocks on the third wave. Half of those who survived, did so by means of this rope.  One of only four planned performances around the country, tickets are available now here.

‘Allt’ new album!

I’ve been quietly working on a new collaborative album with Éamon Doorley, Zoë Conway and John Mc Intyre – which we are launching today!
Recorded live in the round, ‘Allt’ is the culmination of a composition project inspired by old and new Gaelic poetry from Scotland and Ireland. Emotive and powerful melodies coupled with thoughtful and understanding accompaniment.  Engineered by the incredible Calum Malcolm, the album captures the live and vibrant sound of the quartet.
Have a listen here http://smarturl.it/Allt and please note that this album will only be available to buy at live shows or online…you can purchase a physical CD or a download (MP3 or hi-def WAV) directly from us at our store
Le taing do Create Louth, Arts Council Ireland and Colmcille.

January news

Following three sold out shows in Kings Place, London, Shoreham and Celtic Connections in Glasgow, Julie and the band received great reviews in The Times and The Guardian.

“A bonefide trad music star…her voice is flawless, glossy.  Fowlis can sing like a diva, but keeps it sweet.” (The Guardian)

“transfixed by her voice…the purity of her vocals.  Captivating…a masterclass in intimacy.” (The Times)

She heads to Manchester, Kendal and Inverness this week to continue her album release tour, plus further performances at Celtic Connections with the Scottish Symphony Orchestra and the Transatlantic Sessions.

Today, a new project was unveiled – a joint new musical commission with musical comrade Duncan Chisholm.  They are honoured to have been invited to create a new work, commemorating 100 years since the sinking of HMY Iolaire, and the loss of the men onboard.  It remains one of the worst maritime disasters in modern British history, and was a tragedy for the islands.  Many communities in Lewis and Harris have never fully recovered.  The premiere of the work will be over two nights, on November 9th and 10th in An Lanntair, Lewis.  Further details to be announced.