Notable Artists/Tradition Bearers – Gaelic

 

 

Julie Fowlis is a multi-award-winning Gaelic singer who is deeply influenced by her early upbringing in the Outer Hebridean island of North Uist. With a career spanning five studio albums and numerous high-profile collaborations, her ‘crystalline’ and ‘intoxicating’ vocals have enchanted audiences around the world.

Nominated as ‘Folk Singer of the Year’ at the 2018 BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards, and ‘Best Artist’ at the Songlines World Music Awards, Julie is a warm and engaging live performer who has graced stages around the world, from village halls in the Highlands to stages in New York, The Philharmonie de Paris and Shakespeare’s Globe in London.  Recent invitations to perform have included a return to world-class Festival of Voice in Cardiff, the World Festival of Sacred Music in Fez, Morocco, to collaborate with the BBC Concert Orchestra in the Royal Albert Hall for the Proms and to support Scottish icons ‘Runrig’ to an audience of 50,000 during their farewell concert weekend in August 2018.She will forever be recognised for singing the theme songs to ‘Brave’, Disney Pixar’s Oscar, Golden Globe and BAFTA winning animated film, set in the ancient highlands of Scotland. The track was recorded when Julie was eight months pregnant with her second child, and has since been a worldwide smash hit, and the song ‘Touch the Sky’ was indeed long listed for an Oscar nomination in 2013

Blackbird (Lon-dubh)- Julie Fowlis  https://youtu.be/0MzetQfKwbE

 

Eilidh Cormack 

Eilidh Cormack, 22, from the Isle of Skye, won the Ladies’ Gold Medal at the Royal National Mòd on her first attempt at the age of 18 and was a semi-finalist in BBC Scotland’s Young Traditional Musician of the Year 2016. Hailing from a family of well-known Gaelic singers, she has a wealth of experience starting from an early age, both in concert and at festivals such as Celtic Connections, Ligonier Games in the US and Belladrum’s Tartan Heart Festival. She has recently lent her voice to music for The Bard’s Tale IV, a new Xbox game, and to Netflix’s Outlaw King, to be released November 9th. She was recently named the Scottish Government’s Gaelic Ambassador of the Year for her work in supporting the language, primarily through singing and teaching. She also performs with the up-and-coming group SIAN alongside Ceitlin LR Smith, Ellen MacDonald and Innes White, singing the songs of female Gaelic song-makers. SIAN have recently released a single with Niteworks, ‘Air Fàir an Là’.

Iain Ghlinn Cuaich – Eilidh Cormack https://youtu.be/cQZZ0syj4YY  

 

Catherine Tinney 

Glasgow-based Gaelic singer Catherine Tinney hails from the Isle of Skye, where she was immersed in Gaelic culture and traditional music from a young age. An experienced performer, she grew up singing at local cèilidhs, attended the National Centre of Excellence in Traditional Music in Plockton, and has performed at international festivals such as Celtic Connections and Festival Interceltique de Lorient. More recently, Catherine was a BBC Radio Scotland Young Traditional Musician of the Year 2019 finalist and a participant in the TMSA Young Trad Tour.

Catherine Tinney – Young Trad Finalist 2019 https://youtu.be/1hhA6ksCQ5g 

Rachel Newton Gaelic

Singer and harpist Rachel Newton specialises in interpreting traditional folk songs in both English and Gaelic as well as writing and arranging her own music. Rachel plays fiddle and viola in addition to harp and works across a range of performance platforms including theatre and storytelling. A skilled collaborator, Rachel is a founder member of The Shee, BBC Radio 2 Folk Award 2017 Best Group The Furrow Collective and is a part of the Lost Words: Spell Songs. Rachel’s fourth solo album West was released in 2018. Her previous releases are The Shadow Side (2012), Changeling (2014) and Here’s My Heart Come Take It (2016).

Rachel was awarded Instrumentalist of the Year 2016 at the Scots Trad Music Awards and Musician of the Year in the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards 2017. Her album Here’s My Heart Come Take It was shortlisted as one of Scotland’s top 10 outstanding albums in the Scottish Album of the Year (SAY) Award 2017. She was awarded a Critics Award for Theatre in Scotland (CATS) for Best Music and Sound in 2009 for her work with the Rowantree Theatre Company

Rachel Newton’s greatly anticipated album ‘To the Awe’ will be released this November (2020).

Here’s My Heart Come Take It – Rachel Newton https://youtu.be/V9awfAIZRD8

Karen Matheson 

Widely recognised as the compelling vocals of Celtic super-group Capercaillie, Karen Matheson’s life in the limelight began with her performing as a child in her local village hall in Argyll on the West coast of Scotland, where she was brought up immersed in the deep well of traditional songs that have been her inspiration for over 30 years of recording and performing worldwide. Fast forward to last summer, where her stunning rendition of ‘Ae fond kiss’ stole the show at the closing ceremony of the Commonwealth games in Glasgow, to a televised audience of over a billion people.

As a solo performer, Karen has been involved in various projects of collaboration worldwide including the award-winning BBC series Transatlantic Sessions, where over the last decade she has filmed tracks with artists like James Taylor, Emmylou Harris, The McGarrigle Sisters, Nanci Griffith, and a host of respected Scottish musicians. Her many collaborations include Algerian singer Idir, Breton guitarist Dan Ar Braz and Portuguese star Dulce Pontes and the late Pete Seeger.

In December 2010 she was presented with an Honorary degree in music from the Robert Gordon University – another achievement to add to her OBE, and award of “Best Gaelic singer” from the inaugural Scottish folk awards – just some of the many plaudits earned from an astonishing career 

A’Bhirlinn Bharraich – Karen Matheson and Donald Shaw https://youtu.be/tJM-sVZ2tsc  

 

Kim Carnie

The voice of THQ Nordics ‘Black Mirror’ trailer and with soundtrack and on-screen appearances in Netflix’s ‘Outlaw King’ (2018), it is unsurprising that Kim Carnie, with her ‘velvet-voiced authority’ (the Scotsman) has been marked as one to watch. At home on stage and in front of a camera, Kim is currently a children’s TV Presenter on BBC Scotland’s Dè a-Nis? And while she graduated in summer 2016 with a First Class Honours Degree in Scots law, 2017 saw her turn to her voice and the release of her debut EP ‘In Her Company / Na Cuideachd’.In Her Company, and the live line-up, features some of the best names in the folk scene including guitarist Innes White; fiddler Megan Henderson; double bassist Euan Burton; pianist John Lowrie and singers Mischa MacPherson and Siobhan Miller. Other career highlights include performing at Orkney Folk Festival, Hebridean Celtic Festival, Oban Live, Cambridge Folk Festival and Farsund Folk Festival.

Kim Carnie – Finalist – BBC Radio Scotland Young Trad – https://youtu.be/MPJqmHYiYbE 

 

Maeve Mackinnon 

Even amid the wealth of gifted musicians thronging today’s Scottish folk scene, singer Maeve Mackinnon stands out as an exceptional young talent. With a repertoire spanning Gaelic and English-language material, both traditional and contemporary, she’s won acclaim equally for the eloquent emotional connection she forges with every song, communicated in a bewitchingly honeyed, husky yet vibrantly earthy voice, and for her music’s dynamic interplay of boldness and sensitivity. 

Ailean Duinn – Maeve Mackinnon https://youtu.be/NvL5yqZ88uc

 

Mary Ann Kennedy 

Mary Ann Kennedy has spent her life surrounded by music – from earliest memories of her family rehearsing in the front room at nights, through a hothouse classical musical training – and a brief diversion running the BBC’s Gaelic news service – to her world today as musician, singer, broadcaster, writer, choral director, composer and producer.

A member of the ‘first family of Gaelic music’, the Campbell dynasty of singers from Greepe in the Isle of Skye, she is never happier than when making music with other folk. It’s a rare occasion to see her step forward to take the lead role, despite the many awards that have followed her career. Hers is a path that collaborates, nurtures, chivvies and inspires, whether introducing audiences to new world music, producing albums by significant emerging artists, performing on stage or directing her beloved Inverness Gaelic Choir. 

Mise Fhuair – Mary Ann Kennedy https://youtu.be/rQBstxRnxII