Just A Bit of Advice

Do not go to this website, and, if you do, do not push the button that plays samples from the CD. Because if you do, there is a pretty good chance you will feel the price of that CD leaping from your pocket and hurrying itself over to Scotland. (Says I.)

Explanation for those of you who are wise and do not follow the link: it takes you to the website of Julie Fowlis, a Gaelic singer from North Uist in the Hebrides. I heard a mention of her last week and was curious enought to buy a track from her previous CD off of iTunes. Then, of course, I had to just sample her new CD, and at present, the price of that CD has leapt from my pocket and is hurrying itself over to Scotland. At present, I'm most looking forward to hearing "Ille Dhuinn, ’S Toigh Leam Thu" in its entirety (I just liked it. That's why.), but the whole thing sounds like quite a treat. Perhaps it was just a phase, or, more likely, I was just running across the wrong artists, but for a while there, it seemed like Gaelic singing carried with it an obligatory synthesizer humming in the background. The approach on this album may not be traditional in the strictest sense (Chris Thile, a very innovative American mandolinist has been included on a couple of tracks, for example), but it is all. . .well, real music, tasteful and pleasant in every way, and bursting at the seams with more talent than I can get my head around all at once.