Julie Fowlis

This past weekend I had the enormous pleasure, nay the privilege, NAY THE HONOR, of seeing Julie Fowlis perform live. For those of you who don't know, Julie Fowlis is a folk singer (my favorite folk singer) that sings exclusively in Scottish Gaelic. She is one of the many artists who seek to preserve the heritage of Scotland through saving its native language. She is from the Highlands herself. You may have heard her music before in the Disney movie Brave. She has also won a bunch of awards for her music over the years. Through the student newspaper I write for, I got a ticket to go see her perform at the Shakespeare Globe Theatre in London.


The day started out less than 24 hours after my life-long best friend Hannah flew in to visit me. We got up unfortunately early and got on the train to London. We met up with my friend Ben who I know from my undergrad as an anthropology student. After lunch in which we ate at the diner outside London Euston which serves heavenly Nutella milk shakes, we took a shortcut through London University. (I think it was London University) That shortcut turned into a bit of a detour as we spotted an Egyptian archaeology museum and had to go in. We said we would spend only ten minutes there, but it turned into more like an hour after we chatted with a PHD student doing research on one of the skeletons in the museum.

After that we did some pretty touristy stuff for a while. Hannah wanted to see the National Portrait Gallery where we spent some time making fun of old English fashion (codpieces....why???). Then it was down to the river to see the London Eye, Parliament, Big Ben, all that jazz.


 Next we headed down the river to The Tower of London and the Tower Bridge before crossing over to the Globe Theatre.

There was a terrifying 15 minutes where the people at the theatre did not have any record of my ticket. They had to make a bunch of phone calls to the press office before I finally got it. Unfortunately it was only one ticket, so Hannah and Andrea (who had come along, Ben had left us at this point) hung out while I went to the concert.

For those who follow this blog, I have stated a few times how important Scotland is to me, and how connected I feel to that particular part of my ancestry. For any country, one of the most important parts of its culture is its native language. For the Scots, their language was taken from them by the English over several hundred years of oppression. There are Scottish artists today who fight to preserve their cultural heritage by performing in Scottish Gaelic. Julie Fowlis is one of these artists. Her music keeps me feeling close to Scotland even when I am thousands of miles away. Needless to say I was so excited to see her live I could barely contain my excitement.

The theatre itself was a small side theatre that was lit entirely by candle light. It was absolutely gorgeous. It was also a pretty small room, so no matter where you sat you had a good view...not that it mattered to me because I had an amazing seat!

When Julie and the other musicians came out I was so excited. She was as lovely as I had thought she would be, and had a Scottish sense of humor that was charming and funny. She started off with a cheerful song. She said she always did so because Gaelic songs had a bit of a reputation for being depressing. This made the crowd (mostly Scots) laugh pretty hard. Some of the songs were fun and silly, like one about being sea sick, and others were deeply sad and emotional. One was a song adapted from one of Scotland's most famous poets. It was a poem about grieving for his brother. I did not understand the words, but the emotion behind it and the pure magical power of Julie's gorgeous voice literally moved me to tears. I looked around the audience and saw I was not the only one crying, so I didn't feel too embarrassed.

I cannot fully describe to you what it was like seeing her live. I felt transported to the highlands, like my soul had flown to the north and was dancing on the mountains. It was magical, heart wrenching, and powerful. I could have listened to her forever.The spirit of Scotland is in that woman's voice. But unfortunately, all good things end, especially when those good things are a person singing live. Leaving the concert was physically painful for me, and I went into a mini mourning because I did not know if I would ever see her perform again.

On the way to the tube station we walked through a pretty interesting area of London I had not been to before, and I am eager to visit again, so that helped lift my spirits a little.

Still, it was one of the most amazing experiences of my life, and one I am not sure I will ever get to repeat. I hope I do, but until then, I have all her albums to keep me.