Heard that Julie Fowlis is up for Radio 2's folk singer of the year award - having only recently won the BBC young folk musician of the year. Her album "as my heart is" was the first folk album I'd consciously brought in several years. Interestingly, her official site (just like the "blogtree" concept) has currently exceeded its bandwith limit at the moment - surely testament to her popularity. However I've found this biog. on a BBC site. Delighted to see she's a fellow Strathclyde University alumnus!"Originally from North Uist in the Western Isles, Julie Fowlis has emerged as a talented solo performer of Gaelic song. She is perhaps better known as a member of the Gaelic/Scots 'supergroup' Dòchas, but over the past couple of years she has won awards for her solo efforts. In 2004 Julie won at the prestigious Pan-Celtic Sean-Nos singing competition and was also nominated in the Best Gaelic Singer category at the Scots Trad Music Awards.
Julie was originally an instrumentalist (she plays the small pipes, whistle and oboe) and studied Applied Music at Strathclyde University.
Last year, Julie released her debut solo album, mar a tha mo chridhe/as my heart is featuring songs from her native Uist. With funding from the Scottish Arts Council, Julie was able to research local songs in Uist and at the School of Scottish Studies."
