Julie Fowlis with SCO at Celtic Connections 2026

 

The touching, mystical and lyrical beauty of these well-crafted Gaelic songs surrounded by live trad folk music  Julie Fowlis with the Scottish Chamber orchestra - Celtic Scots and Irish traditional folk voices enhanced by the depth of sound of the classical orchestra. As well as her crystal clear voice – Julie has a clear, deeply felt, musicality, along with her husband Irish bouzouki (Greek mandolin) player Eamon Doorley and now partnered with Irish fiddler and Gaelic singer Zoe Conway and Irish musician John McIntyre. 

 

The quartet’s 2024 ALLT albums captures their authentic traditional music with that impactful live vibe and cohesive sound: with soaring pipes, fiddles, melodies, dynamic rhythm guitar, the emotional solo voice, and the collective and caressing soothing vocal harmonies. 

They played the range and depth of traditional music – and the long roots between Irish and Scottish music. Both intimate and powerful. All performers were clearly thrilled to have the impact and range of the SCO behind them, to enrich their music with strings, percussions, wind instruments. Creatively conducted by David Brophy.

 

They began with tunes with Fowlis on small pipes. As well as their toe-tapping, uplifting tunes, there were several stand out ballads, namely the memorable Puthrag Nom Puth’r (Sister o sister, about love and loss), the haunting Cuimhne, the melodic Caim chaluim chille chaoimh specially commissioned for Ireland. And the expressive Theid Mi Do Loch Alainn. 

 

The live trad folk music worked so well along side the live orchestra settings, perfectly back by Doorley’s counter-melodies on bouzouki and withMcIntyre’s dramatic melodic and rhythmic guitar, floated over with the perfect calming Gaelic voices. This was a quality collaboration of kindred musical voices, with Fowlis and Conway’s interwoven harmonies. These Gaelic songs were given heart-stirring, joyful, lyrical and uplifting musical settings. 

 

Their song Faoiseamh was dedicated to the people of Ukraine. Conway spoke of how their music and songs were based on their personal inspirations of Gaelic poems, both old and new. Songs of the natural world, homelands: open hearted story-telling, with songs of place and time, love and loss. 

 

They finished their set with speys and reels and a couple of Polka tunes. For their encore they performed beautiful harmony singing on La Rouil. Followed by lively tunes, when they were joined on stage by Mairtin O’Connor on accordion. 

 

Fowlis’s voice is a delight and her performances always have her audiences entranced. Her music expresses her Hebridean Uist roots, with her intimate and pure voice. Perfectly matched by the Irish voices of Conway and McIntyre’s counterbalancing Gaelic harmonies. A high quality, sublime, engrossing and enriching concert. 

 

*Fowlis was very well supported by renowned Irish accordion player and composer Mairtin O’Connor, also backed by the orchestra on some powerful tunes. O’Connor has performed with Boys of the Lough and Riverdance. 

 

I’m personally a massive fan of the live album and I highly recommend both volumes of ALLT. Fowlis plays the Scottish small pipes, oboe, bagpipes  and a melodeon shruti box, which provided a graceful surround to her voice. Mairttn O’Connor, as a session musician has played with the Chieftains, Dubliners, Moga Brennan, Christy Moore, Mark Knopler, Rad Stewart, Elvis Costello, Tim and Neil Finn more. 

 

** Julie Fowlis is an acclaimed Scots Gaelic singer and is well known for her vocals on films – recently on Outlander’s Blood of my Blood and on Disney’s Brave film. She has performed with James Taylor, KT Tunstall, Chris Thile, Graham Coxon (Blur), Nicola Benedetti, Le Vent du Nord, Carlos Nuñez and Mary Chapin Carpenter. Plus a TV and radio presenter (BBC, SKY ARTS, TG4), a voice artist, for The Lost Spells, and on the worldwide best-selling video game Assassins Creed Valhalla, with renowned Norwegian composer Einar Selvik.

 

REVIEW AND PHOTOS PAULINE KEIGHTLEY – www.pkimage.co.uk

 

**ALLT album is a beautiful collection of newly crafted songs and tunes by Julie Fowlis, Éamon Doorley, Zoë Conway and John Mc Intyre.   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, this album captures the spirit and the energy of a live performance.  ‘Allt’ is a truly collaborative venture which artfully and sensitively threads together words and music from their home countries, and reaffirms the ancient musical connection between Ireland and Scotland.  

 Irish musician Mairtin O’Connor

Fowlis was very well supported by renowned Irish accordion player Mairtin O’Connor, also backed by the orchestra on some powerful tunes. O’Connor has performed with Boys of the Lough and Riverdance. 

Tonight we were treated to two celebrated musicians and composers – Julie Fowlis and Mairtin O’Connor, both brilliantly backed by the SCO. O’Connor performed his composition The Mighty Ocean: a musical dialogue between mankind and the sea, with his band, Cathal Hayden (fiddle), Seamie O’Dowd (guitar), Matthew Berrill (clarinet), Jimmy Higgins (percussion), Ciara O’Connor (cello), Sinead O’Connor (fiddle). 

 

The Statutes of Iona 1609

 

On a beautiful sunny day under perfect blue skies, we visited the peaceful island of Iona, where I discovered a plaque to the –

Statutes of Iona of 1609

James VI brought the clan chiefs together for a meeting on Iona. He was the son of Mary Queen of Scots and heir to queen Elizabeth of England – with the Union of the Crowns in 1603.

 

He required that the eldest sons of Highland chiefs be educated in England

 

The Statutes of Iona aimed to civilize the Highlands into English culture and language in order to suppress Gaelic culture, and to bring clan leaders under royal control by making them accountable in Edinburgh. 

 

To eliminate Scottish Memory by outlawing Gaelic bards. 

 Just as had happened in Ireland outlawing Irish Gaelic. 

Key Aspects of the Statutes of Iona (1609):

·       Education for Heirs: Chiefs had to send their firstborn sons (or other heirs) to be educated in Lowland Scotland.

·       Religious Compliance: Support Protestant ministers and outlaw Gaelic bards (who preserved traditional culture).

·       Royal Control: Chiefs had to appear annually before the Privy Council in Edinburgh to answer for their actions.

·       Goal: To pacify the Highlands, assert royal authority, and assimilate the region into the more "civilized" Lowland Scottish & English culture, reducing the power of the clan system. 

 

Revival Scots Language

 

I attended a talk last week by the Scots poet Len Pennie at Dreamworks Bookshop Milngavie

Pennie’s poems have more lilting lyrical musicality than her English poetry. Her poems pack immediate emotional directness and punch. She says it was all the grandmothers who kept the Scots voices and language alive. 

 

Welsh Labour are proud of Welsh Gaelic and the Welsh flag. We cannot say the same of Scottish labour, would they stand in front of the saltire and speak in Scots Gaelic or Scots? There’s been a long story of religious divisions in Scotland – the divide and rule tactic of the empire elites.

 

She suffered dreadful trolling online abuse. For many years the Scots language has been treated as a ‘pretendy language’ and oddly often by hostile Scots, it’s a centuries old saga. Yet Scots have been historically influenced by their connections and trade to Flanders and Ireland. 

II  Back when James VI held a clan gathering on Iona, he insisted that the clans had their eldest son educated in England, and taught to speak ‘correct English’. This practice continues to this day, with the private school accents. All the assimilation, repression of cultural difference. In the 20^thcentury English managers and middle class professionals came to Scotland – and Scots speaking workers were treated as second class citizens in their own country. 

 

The opposite was true back after union 1700s though – the Scots were the workers of the British empire, when after Reformation many Scots were highly educated and there were more ancient universities in Scotland – 

 

So what changed?

During the 1700s several poets wrote to keep the scots language alive  - Allan Ramsey, Robert Fergusson and notably Robert Burns. Burns wrote in English, the language of his education in books. But it was when he read the Scots poems of Fergusson he was inspired to write in Scots, the language closest to his heart. His mother knew and sang all the old Scots ballads. Burns collected, added to and edited the auld Scots songs from his many Scotia travels. 

 

English is of course the global language after the spread of the British empire. But crucially cultural diversity matters so much – both back in Burns day and today. We can have global trade and connectedness AND also have our own voices. We can have both. Why must it be either or?

 

For decades Scots children were rapped over the knuckles if they spoke with a Scots accent or belted if they used Scots words or dialects. Broadcaster Lorraine Kelly was initially told she must tone down her Scots accent if she wanted to be successful - and she thought why should I? 

 

In the 1950s most radio and tv presenters spoke with a clipped Oxford English. Today we have many accents – yet worryingly Scots students attending Edinburgh university continue to be mocked for speaking with a Scots accent – and told to ‘speak more correctly’ by English private school students. When I travelled across Edinburgh on the top of the bus I heard English accents of students in brightly coloured blazers and thought, where are they from? Around 25% of Edinburgh students attend private schools. This creates an unhealthy two-tier society which holds many children back.  

 

At Celtic Connections there are many hauntingly beautiful Gaelic singers 

When Scots writer Billy Kay gave a speech in Scot in the Scottish parliament, he was ridiculed by many Scots. The usual Scots versus Scots. In Switzerland they can speak both local and high German languages – the two languages sit by side by side and not in opposition to each other.

 

Why must Scots chose a side? Religious wars are now centuries old – while the British Constitution of 1688 continues to dominate. Why cant we have English and Scots and Scots Gaelic alongside each other?

 

The Scots language is not merely a side issue – its crucial to our Scots identity and unique voice. Diversity matters. 

 

**The Scots language has been recognised on Spotify – Iona Fyfe

 

Scots is now taught in Scottish schools. 

Is Wales ahead of Scotland now

 

Wales has decided to improve the faulty supposedly PR (proportional representation) voting system given to its Devolved government in 1999, to a proper proportional system. 

Wales is proud of their Welsh language and culture. Even the Welsh Labour party stands before Welsh flags and uses Welsh Gaelic! Imagine that happening here in Scotland? 

 

By contrast Scots Labour stands in front of a Union Jack and is ashamed of Scots language and culture. They detest the use of Scots language or Gaelic in the Scottish parliament or in song. 

 

Its the usual Scots against Scots fight – that was encouraged here after Culloden. Were you a Jacobin/ Jacobite or a Hanoverian? Was this divide and rule by the British state not employed in Wales too? Was in all about religion?

 

Protecting Scots Gaelic

 

Funding for Welsh Gaelic – 125m

Scots Gaelic- 25m

Irish Gaelic – 80m

 

Support for the Scots Celtic language is not enough.  

Welsh Gaelic is their national language. 

 

By contrast Scots Gaelic has become a regional language due to the suppressions after Culloden and since. There is BBC Alba in Scots Gaelic.  Gaelic does offer economic potential 

 

The Deliberate Forgetting

Scottish culture has been not just ignored, but deliberately suppressed by the British state. That’s my main reason for wanting Scotland’s independence. Especially not because I want to be nostalgic about the past – of the Walter Scott’s version of a "romantic Scot's past, lost and gone forever" -  but of the living breathing here and now. The stories and songs that make Scotland unique in the world. 

Poetry Shapes Us

 

While Burns loved the lassies, his legacy is much deeper and more wide-ranging poetically than his love life. Some of his songs are so familiar, perhaps we can overlook his literary significance – both of his time and of ours.  The musicality of his song writing and poems, is unmatched and many famous poets and songsmiths name Burns as a favourite writer– from Bob Dylan to Wordsworth. 

In his short life he touched hearts, wrote of the worth of man (and woman), respect for the natural world, of freedom fighters, and he was a man o independent mind. 

 

“Poetry hold s mirror to a nations heart and soul. “ Jackie Key

“Its the language of being human” 

 

 *Famous Scots Poems 20^th century 

 

Memo for Spring - Liz Lochead

Drunk man looks at a Thistle – Hugh MacDiarmid

In my Country – Jackie Kay

A Man in Assynt – Norman McCaig

 

Gaelic Song

A rare beauty, or the big sky of Lewis. 

Gaelic poems were songs, tunes and words intertwined. The connections to place.

  

Norman McCaig

“Who owns this landscape – has it anything to do with love? Even the dead are part of it. Land is a character…Landscape is my religion, I feel at home. My substitute for religion and politics.“

 

Drunk man looks at a thistle – Hugh MacDiarmid – Where extremes meet

His poem, revolutionized Scots poetry ’to be yoursell” 

“He showed us that small nations are better than large ones, and the possibility of a new Scotland.” Alan Riach. “A revolutionary vision of what society can be. To rethink the Burns cult for a multi-faceted identity. Language matters.”

 

Gaelic Singers and Fiddlers

Celtic Connections makes me think of the wonderful Gaelic singers, fiddlers and unique collaborations. I’ve see it as pulsating, joyous, uplifting and colourful concerts. Celtic musicians of the British isles, Canada, France, Spain and the international musicians from Finland, India, Africa, Sweden, Norway, Iceland, Brittany and many more..

Gaelic is a soft, flowing, dream-like language and very popular at Celtic Connections. 

 

Best known Gaelic singer is Karen Matheson of Capercaillie band. Also Julie Fowlis who tours worldwide and sings on movie soundtracks. Kathleen McInnes, 

 

**Impressive fiddlers include – Aly Bain, John McCusker, Duncan Chisholm, Chris Stout, 

 

The Scots diaspora across the world is around 28 to 40 million. Scots have for centuries been great travellers, being an island nation. Scotland is one of Europe’s most ancient nations (begun 9th century)

And has strong ties to Flanders, France, Italy. 

 

This year the world famous Celtic Connections festival is celebrating women musicians, with headline concert with Karine Polwart, Julie Fowlis, 

 

 

Capercaillie 40 year anniversary new album Reloved

Widely respected trailblazers of Celtic music, Capercaillie are credited with being the major force in bringing Gaelic music to the world stage and inspiring the great resurgence so evident today. From their homeland roots of Argyll in the highlands of Scotland, the band’s musical journey has seen them tour 30+ countries, sell over a million albums, perform in Rob Roy (1995) alongside Liam Neeson and Jessica Lange, and enter the pop charts with Coisich a Ruin - the first Gaelic single to reach the Top 40.

To celebrate their 40th anniversary, Capercaillie release a new album “Reloved” realising their dream of creating full symphonic arrangements for their music. Comprising material from their much loved repertoire it encapsulates the spirit of the band with strident waulkings songs from the Hebrides, hypnotic groove infused instrumentals and epic modern ballads and love songs.

Capercaillie is led by Donald Shaw and Karen Matheson and is one of Scotland’s most respected bands. The band draw on rich ballad traditions, as well as their fusion of folk and more contemporary influences., while also staying with more traditional arrangements and instruments. Their music has been used in films. 

This ground-breaking and genre-defying Scots band, celebrate their 40 years of success in music. With Karen Matheson’s pure and haunting Gaelic voice. While Donald Shaw is a highly regarded Scots composer and musician, as well as musical director of Celtic connections festival since 2004. His composing credits include Bafta nominated scores for TV and film. 

 

Shaw and Matheson from Oban are married   - they are a formidable team! - https://capercaillie.co.uk

Scots Gaelic Kim Carnie Transatlantic Sessions, Celtic Connections 2024, #ccfest2024,

 

Scots Gaelic singer songwriter, Kim Carnie, lead singer with Manran, performed at the Transatlantic Sessions, Celtic Connections 2024, #ccfest2024,

SCOTS TRAD AWARDS 2023

 

Kim Carnie

Blazin fiddles

21st^st MG ALBA Scots Trad Music awards

Took place at the Dundee Caird hall this November and was presented by Alistair Heather and Mary Ann Kennedy – the awards reflect the success and Scotland’s rich cultural heritage. 

Along with grand performances by Joy Dunlop, Duncan Chisholm, Peatbog Fairies and Scottish Trad party starters Manran.

Duncan Chisholm

**AWARD WINNERS INCLUDE - 

Ducan Chisholm – Album of the year

Peatbog Fairies – (Skye folk fusion)  - folk band of the year

Julie Fowlis – Musician of the year

Joy Dunlop – Gaelic singer

Eilidh Cormack - Gaelic Singer of the Year,

Iona Fyfe – Citty Finlayson Scots Singer of the Year

Blazin Fiddles – Folk band of the year

The Shand- Up and coming artist of the year 

Trail West – live act of the year

**The Gatherin south sessions – club of the year

Julie Fowlis

Kim Carnie at Celtic Connections 202

 Charmed with her soft, mesmerising voice

 

Carnie was the support artist for Duncan Chisholm, tonight and was backed by the strings and piano, and with Megan Henderson on vocals and violin and with Innes White on guitar. For tonight’s concert she performed Gaelic heritage songs. 

The song Chan Eil A’ Chuis was based on the work of a female bard, a hymn of the morning light and was backed with only piano, beautiful. Carnie has written new compositions for her album and with the festivals artistic director Donald Shaw producing – And So We Gather and She Moves Me. She has a bubble personality and it would be good to hear more of her upbeat and infectious final song – Nighearn sin Thall. The Gaelic song is ever popular with cc audiences and she performed with her clear tones and poignant songs. More please!