It says a lot for the Julie Fowlis effect that a google search for her previous two albums throws up reviews not only from the big UK papers – not normally renowned for their coverage of things Gaelic – but also from sources as diverse as the Pittsburgh City Paper and the Boston Globe. And if they liked ‘Cuilidh’ and ‘Mar a tha mo chridhe’, they’re bound to love her newest effort, ‘Uam’.
‘Uam’ is the Gaelic for ‘from me’, and Julie explains that the idea of the passing of songs from singer to singer is central to the culture – and survival - of Gaelic song. Perhaps it’s apt, then, that two of the stand-out tracks on the album have come to Julie in just this way. ‘Thig am bàta’ she learned from Mary Smith’s distinctive Lewis version, and ‘A Chatrìon’ òg’, a version of ‘A Mhairead òg’, comes from a School of Scottish Studies recording of the late Reverend William Matheson. Both are gorgeous. ‘Thig am Bàta’ benefits from brilliant accompaniment from Martin O’ Neill on bodhrán, as well as spot-on vocals from Julie. ‘A Chatrìon’ òg’ has a stripped-back melody and heart-rending lyrics - a young man out hunting goes to retrieve a white bird he has shot over a loch, only to discover his lover, dead and floating in the water. (“Should have gone to Specsavers,” quipped Éamon Doorley on the Edinburgh leg of the album tour).
The line-up of musicians on the album includes not only Julie’s excellent regular collaborators Doorley, O’ Neill, Duncan Chisholm and Tony Byrne, but also guests Phil Cunningham, Allan MacDonald, Jerry Douglas, Sharon Shannon and Ewen Vernal. There are also guest appearances from Mary Smith and Eddi Reader, the latter duetting with Julie on an English/Gaelic version of ‘the Wind and Rain’. It’s a polished number, but I wondered if the verse-about style really brought out the best in the song. I was also initially unsure of a Gaelic version of the Breton song ‘Me zo ganet é kreiz er mor’ (I was born in the middle of the sea’), but on subsequent listenings I found it grew on me, unlike ‘Wind and Rain’.
The puirt and tune sets are great, and it’s also great to see new compositions appearing. The inclusion of songs from other traditions in translation is new for Julie – might some new Gaelic songs be a project for future albums? Reinterpretation is obviously key to the survival of a tradition, but without any significant level of new material being created, Gaelic song is in danger of stagnating.
That’s maybe a discussion for another time and place, though. With gorgeous singing and virtuoso instrumentals, ‘Uam’ is a fantastic album.