flanerie

Murder and shagging…

…are what all folk songs are usually about, but topics for beautiful melodies can also include manure and cabbages, or so I learnt recently.

On Friday, I had the great pleasure of hearing Julie Fowlis and her band play at the Bury Met. The support act is best forgotten – suffice to say I was delighted when they were told they were “out of time” about twenty minutes into their set. I don’t think they’ll be invited back to the Met in a hurry (at least, I fervently hope not).

The main act, though, had to be heard to be believed – Ms. Fowlis’ beguiling Gaelic vocals being accompanied by Eamon Doorley on bouzouki, Duncan Chisholm on fiddle and Tony Byrne on guitar.

This tour is promoting Julie’s second album, Cuilidh. Like her first album (Mar a Tha Mo Chridhe), Julie has researched and selected traditional tunes from her native Uist, giving a glimpse of otherwise obscure works from an oral tradition to a wide (and ever-growing, with all her great reviews) audience. The artists worked so very well together – they weren’t just doing a gig, they were having fun, clearly enjoying every minute. They had apparently had trouble on the roads getting up here from their London gig the previous day, arriving at about a quarter to eight after a seven-hour journey – goodness knows how they managed to sound so fresh and alert, then! I shall be going for a second helping when they play in Sale in a week or so.

Two tracks from each of her albums can be heard on Julie’s MySpace page.

And yes, apparently some of the songs sung during the concert, while sounding romantic, were in fact about spreading manure on the garden and other such prosaic activities.