JULIE FOWLIS has taken the Gaelic language of her native North Uist to a mainstream music audience and broadened her reach beyond the dreams of most traditional musicians by providing the singing voice of Merida in Disney-Pixar’s multi-award-winning animated film Brave. If the Latin title of this, her fifth album, suggests a different strand emerging in her output, the many fans attracted by her easy-on-the-ear style will not be disappointed.
Songs in English appear on one of her recordings for the first time, with her singing of Anne Briggs’s Go Your Way – once a staple of the late Bert Jansch’s gig repertoire – taking her into the soft folk territory marked out by Kate Rusby and Archie Fisher’s Windward Away being one of two tracks to feature Nashville-based singer-songwriter Mary Chapin Carpenter on guest vocals.
Elsewhere, South Uist’s Gillebride MacMillan (aka the bard in Outlander) guests on his Gaelic translation of the Galician song Camarinas and former Danu singer Muireann Nic Amlaoibh adds her voice to two tracks of a collection that is cleanly produced and features the instantly recognisable character of fiddler Duncan Chisholm alongside an expertly arranged string section and proficient accompanists.
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