Julie Fowlis navigates the linguistic barriers of Scots Gaelic to communicate as powerfully as the best torch singers, writes Siobhán Long.
Anyone who figured the public appetite for live traditional music in the heart of Dublin city was either non-existent or long sated would have raised an eyebrow when the inaugural Temple Bar Irish Music & Culture Festival packed virtually all of its houses in the depths of January last year. Not only were there audiences for the music, but there were a slew of local musical accents to be heard. Even a cursory listen to the subtle harmonies and melodic intricacies of Skara Brae, reunited for last year's festival, was enough to reassure listeners that Dublin's city centre was as fitting a setting for traditional music as Dunlewey or Ballyferriter.
This year's line-up, under the watchful eye of curator Finbar Boyle, brings together an eclectic mix of live music, photographic exhibitions, children's music sessions and song, dance and language workshops. The cacophony will be tempered by the presence of Hebridean singer Julie Fowlis.
From the island of North Uist in the Outer Hebrides, Fowlis sings in Scots Gaelic and was the 2006 winner of the BBC Radio 2 Horizon Award for Best Emerging Artist. Having already released two CDs with the successful sextet Dóchas, followed by her solo debut in 2005, Mar A Thá Mo Chridhe or "As My Heart Is", Fowlis has already sent ripples through the traditional singing world. She is a rare breed: an accomplished piper, she also plays the oboe and cor anglais, and she's a singer who navigates her way through the linguistic barriers of Scots Gaelic to communicate as powerfully as the finest of torch singers. Julie Fowlis is a singer whose predecessors might encompass Maighread Ní Dhomhnaill, Mairéad Ní Mhaonaigh and Edith Piaf. She's already putting the finishing touches to her second solo album, Cuilidh, to be released later this year.
If Fowlis's singing voice has put her in the spotlight in recent years, she pays little heed to it. Raised in a household as conversant with contemporary pop and rock as it was with traditional singing, the allure of Scots Gaelic songs was natural.
"I grew up listening to these songs being sung all around me," she offers, with refreshing gentility. Like Irish sean-nós singing, Scots Gaelic singing enjoys a rich variation in accent, defined largely by geography. "A lot of dialects of Scots Gaelic have died out, but on the islands, and on the Hebrides and Skye in particular, they're still very strong, because geographically they're the most remote. There's a vast difference in singing styles still, from the very north part of the Hebrides, on Lewis, right down through the Uists to Barra in the south."
Her island background influenced the very shape of the songs she sings, Fowlis acknowledges. "The songs we sing were definitely influenced by the scales of the pipes," she notes. "We have walking songs, and weaving songs and so much more. Scotland has two different, very rich styles of singing: there's the one that's from down south, near the borders and then there's the Highlands style. It's a rich, melting pot of traditions."
A GRADUATE OF music performance at Glasgow's University of Strathclyde, Fowlis is no stranger to the hardships of eking out a living from the music. Her burgeoning live performance commitments inevitably led her to plunge headlong into a full-time career, almost in spite of her personal ambitions to work in arts administration.
"During and after college, I was playing on a professional level, but on a part-time basis," Fowlis recounts. "Before I knew it, I was doing as many gigs as some of my friends who were playing full time, and trying to hold down a full-time job as well. Being based in the Highlands of Scotland, I was constantly driving everywhere too, so for both my sanity and my physical health I had to make a decision about the music. I was surprised that I could make enough to survive as a professional musician, but in my early days, I used to be physically ill before a performance. I really didn't have a lot of confidence in my own ability, and it was never part of my plan, but that's what happened."
Fowlis has toured in Ireland before, but largely in the Gaeltacht areas. "It's funny how, when you share a language, you feel a certain affinity with people," she says of her travels in the west. "Particularly in Donegal, where Scots Gaelic and Irish are so close. We have no trouble understanding one another. Two of the Bothy Band's most well-known songs were Calum Sgaire and Fionnghuala, and both of those are from the Hebrides. So there's a really natural link there between us."
Fowlis's island upbringing has left its mark on her. "I think that when you grow up on an island, it certainly leaves its stamp on you," she smiles, "but it's something we share with the Highlanders as well: we always have to travel, to leave and to go somewhere else. So many songs speak of leaving the islands, and longing for home. Being so remote, and being so exposed to the elements, you're at the mercy of sea and wind, so I think there's a strong survivor instinct that comes with living there."
Fowlis is quick to acknowledge the benefits of bagging the BBC Radio 2 Award, and the Gaelic Singer of the Year prize at the Scots Trad Music Awards in 2005.
"On the one hand, the whole award thing doesn't sit very comfortably with traditional music, because awards are not what it's all about," she says diplomatically. "At the same time, in a modern-day setting, it gives a little bit more value to what I'm doing, and it's great just to celebrate the music in this way. There are so many great folk singers out there, though, that I feel a bit of a chancer to be among them!
"But seriously, winning the Horizon Award last year certainly opened a lot of doors for me, and gave me opportunities I wouldn't have had otherwise, in terms of performance."
AS TIMES CHANGE, and the passing of songs from generation to generation gets squeezed by 21st-century life's frantic pace, one thing Julie Fowlis appreciates is the depth of the well from which she draws her repertoire. Not for her the anonymity of trawling through dusty catalogues. She's lucky to be closer to the source than many of her contemporaries.
"It's a lovely thing to go home and to meet someone who might meet me in a shop, for example, and say 'I've got a lovely song and you've got to sing it'," she says. "People are so willing to pass on what they have. It's a very fortunate position to be in. That learning pattern has changed as community life has changed. Most people no longer have the opportunity to learn directly from the source, so I know how lucky I am to have that. Nearly all the songs I sing are songs from North Uist, which I'm afraid could be lost. A big passion of mine is going to listen to the people who pass those songs on, and hearing the stories behind the songs. That's what we're good at in the northwest: telling long, tall tales!"
Temple Bar Irish Music and Cultural Festival runs from next Thur, Jan 25, to Jan 28. Julie Fowlis performs on Sun, Jan 28, in the Olympia Theatre, Dublin, alongside Lúnasa and Dervish. Other festival performers include Ronan Browne and Peter O'Loughlin, Liam O'Connor and Seán McKeon. www.templebartrad.com. Bookings: www.ticketmaster.ie or 0818-7193000