Julie Fowlis
Album: Gach Sgeul (Every Story)
Label: Machair
Tracks: 11
Website: http://www.juliefowlis.com

It's been over four years since Julie's last studio album (Uam), with only the stop-gap Live At Perthshire Amber set to keep her fans happy, but Gach Sgeul proves worth the wait, for even though it springs no real surprises it's great to have another helping of Julie to return to more frequently in between life's endless frustrations. There's always been something about Julie's whole approach to her music and culture that betokens an uplifting experience and a joyful reassurance for the listener, and Gach Sgeul conforms to that general expectation while not being predictable (except in terms of a high artistic quality being maintained, of course).

As Julie herself is keen to expound, she is "fortunate to come from a place where telling tales, sharing stories and singing songs are not only a national pastime, but rather signposts showing us where, and who, we have come from". This she has the gift of communicating intimately and wholly inclusively to her listeners, which is a remarkable feat given that she sings entirely (and uncompromisingly) in Gaelic, a language for which she's been instrumental (nay, vocal!) in raising the profile among folk music enthusiasts, and helped many listeners to overcome inbuilt prejudice against appreciation of any songs not sung in English. Here, each song has a story, and has through the course of her life developed special personal resonances too; some selections she has known since childhood, whereas others, like the lullabies and sleep-songs, have only recently come to her through the key experience of having two children during her four-year gap between the Uam and Gach Sgeuln albums. This experience had also, it appears, given rise to changes in Julie's voice, most noticeable perhaps in the increased confidence she displays in her range, with a newly convincing depth in the changeover to - and inhabiting of - her lower register (displayed here on Do Chalum and the lullaby Cadal Ciarach Mo Luran).

But Julie's unerring vocal poise, her sheer elegance in interpretation and execution, and her knack for configuring exactly the right type and level of musical accompaniment for each "story", remain intact for this new recording. And as usual, Julie's surrounded herself with the cream of Scottish musicians (the likes of Duncan Chisholm, Éamon Doorley, Tony Byrne, Donald Shaw, Ewen Vernal and Michael McGoldrick, to name just those who appear on all or most of the tracks - with a good half-dozen more guests providing occasional cover, including the four-piece RANT fiddle-and-viola ensemble on three glorious tracks). As ever, it's impossible to challenge, or in any way fault, Julie's fabulous choice of material, or her consummate ability to assemble a menu full of satisfying contrasts. The disc's two Puirt A Beul sets are a joy, giving us listeners as much pleasure as they evidently give Julie to wrap her accomplished vocal skills around; I think I detect an even more pronounced delight in her now-less-girlish and ever more confident mastery of the rapid-fire vocal dexterity that these sets involve - although it's rather tempting for the non-Gaelic-speaker to hear Danns' A Luideagan Odhar (Dance Of The Dun-coloured Slattern) as Dance On The Chicken Wire!… At the same time, Julie's seductive mastery of the longer line on An Ròn and the lyrical Òran Fir Heisgeir (to cite just two examples) proves as persuasive as ever, especially when the instrumental backdrops are as well-judged and sensitively moulded as they are here, and there's fire and passion aplenty in her delivery of disc opener A Ghaoil, Leig Dhachaigh Gum Mhàthair Mi.

The supremely attractive accompanying booklet deserves a mention too, for it's both arty and highly informative, supplying texts and translations and Julie's own succinct notes on the selections, also full personnel credits. For on Gach Sgeul, the music and the artwork together make a beautiful, and perfectly unified, very classy product.

David Kidman