Born and raised on the Isle of Lewis in the Scottish Hebrides, native Gaelic speaker Alyth McCormack is a fascinating performer, equally at home as a singer -- take her stunning solo work An Iomall/The Edge, or the album Sugarcane recorded with female trio Shine, or November released by Scottish fusion band Sunhoney. Her voice is distinct and very pure, and her Gaelic song interpretations are breathtaking. She's also a highly accomplished actress, performing to great acclaim, for example, in the Hogmanay Boys production at Glasgow's 2003 Celtic Connections Festival.

Earlier this year she took part in a successful British Council sponsored project in Sao Paolo, Brazil (where her Gaelic songs went down really well), and hopes to take part in a reciprocal project. In this interview, Alyth reveals her future projects, both in terms of her singing and acting, and gives us a feel for the cultural influences and life experiences that have helped her to become the performer she is today.

In terms of Alyth's vocal abilities, she's one of the most highly original singers I've ever heard. She's not afraid to strip a song right back to its very basic structure and let her voice work its own magic. I was not surprised at all, therefore, to hear that "Mhicshiridh," sung a cappella, is one of Alyth's favourite songs. Her fascinating, minimalist approach to Hebridean waulking (work) songs and puirt a beuls (mouth music) is equally radical -- take "Bothan" for example, again from An Iomall, where the pin drop silence behind the a cappella vocal is mesmerising. And on The Captain's Collection, her interpretation of puirt a beul (though lasting under 2 minutes) is the most astonishingly intense I have ever heard, her voice surrounded by fiddles, guitars and pipes. I've heard this song elsewhere, sung by Karen Matheson on Capercaillie's album Beautiful Wasteland -- that song is "The Tree."

Alyth McCormack is a performer to see live if you possibly can -- either as a singer or as an actress. You will not be disappointed!

I've always been struck by the beauty and rhythm of the Gaelic language in song, and I began by asking Alyth whether she preferred to sing and speak in Gaelic or English. "I enjoy both languages," Alyth replied. "Gaelic is a beautiful language with its own rhythm, and can say simple things in a very poetic way. I love that. It also has its own humour. However, I also love English. English can be very direct and that has its own power. English-speaking audiences respond to the sound of Gaelic songs, the feeling, and can form their own images, whereas with a song in English they will respond to every word. I guess being a singer I just love the power of words."

Alyth is on record as saying she loves beautiful Hebridean songs such as "An Ataireachd Ard/The Surge of the Sea." When I asked her which among the songs she's recorded was her favourite, Alyth thought it was a pretty big question. "I have a list of my 'favourite songs' that is as long as my arm," she said. "With recorded songs I respond to a song not just because of the song itself, but also how it is interpreted and also how it is arranged. With this in mind one of my favourite songs is 'What You Do with What You've Got.' You'll find it on Eddi Reader's Mir Mara album. Her version just soars and the words are very powerful and she lets them lead the arrangement. Dick Gaughan has also recorded this song.

"Regarding Gaelic songs, well, I have always thought 'Mhicshiridh' (recorded on An Iomall) is very powerful. It's a song a sister wrote for her brother who was drowned as sea. She tells of his hair tangled in the seaweed and his white teeth smashed on the rocks, a very sad song containing powerful images for a sister to voice aloud about her brother. People often think any Gaelic song is romantic; it is not romantic but very passionate.

"'An Ataireachd Ard' is still a favourite, recently recorded by Karen Matheson; I will be singing it in a play I am working on this summer and may well record it myself one day."

I've always wondered just how many of these lovely Hebridean songs existed, and asked Alyth whether they were all documented, or if some are passed down solely through the oral tradition. (Artists such as Alyth McCormack and Karen Matheson seem to have an unerring ability to track down and reinterpret this material for a modern audience with pretty devastating effect.)

"I do enjoy interpreting songs and hope therefore I help to bring them and Gaelic to a new audience," Alyth said. "How many songs exist -- who knows? Are they all documented -- I doubt it. Nowadays many songs are documented but through my own experience of researching songs, you can be sitting talking to someone about one song and it will jog their memories of another.

"When song-collection was carried out by the likes of Margaret Kennedy Fraser and company, it was done to preserve songs, but the oral tradition is very strong. Some songs were written down in one form only to appear years later but through the oral tradition have developed into something different. Songs traveled, so in Lewis may have one melody and in the Uists have another."

Alyth studied at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama, and I remarked that this seemed to have been a pretty wise career choice, because her acting and singing are obviously so intrinsically linked -- she has been acting to great acclaim since 1998. Our conversation turned to the drama productions Alyth has appeared in to date, and she noted: "I think the most rewarding production was The Captain's Collection by Hamish MacDonald. It was the story of Captain Simon Fraser -- himself a song collector. He collected songs and tunes around the time of the Jacobite Rebellion but didn't include words, as he didn't want to upset the 'establishment.' (That is a rather simplified version but that is part of the story).

"I loved this production firstly because I love Hamish's writing (he does a great deal of research), also it gave me the scope to try out a few characters (four of whom were men) and I sang most of the material for the show. It took a lot of energy and I like to be challenged. In Hamish's next production Seven Ages we both had nine characters each! The other day I got a call to say that we are to do a tour of Seven Ages in February and March 2004, and I am delighted.

"This year I'll be taking part in the Highland Festival's newly commissioned play Seven Hunters by Iain Steven, about the Flannan Isles disaster. This will be touring the Highlands in June and July. The Flannan Isles are a group of seven small, uninhabited islands 30 miles west of Lewis, and during the first winter of their new lighthouse (1901) all three keepers went missing, and even today the mystery has still not been solved. I always loved this story as a kid and am looking forward to working on it. Later this year I will also be working with Wee Stories, which is a children's theatre company (the antithesis to The Singing Kettle). We'll be working on a piece about King Arthur. Wee Stories have a great reputation for story telling, inspiring and educating."

I wanted to know whether Alyth's singing career took priority over her acting, or whether her "dream ticket" was simply to enjoy and explore both. Alyth's reply was clear enough: "My 'dream ticket' is definitely to enjoy and explore both. It's all about interpretation -- I am in my element. When you learn a new song you learn the background to it to help you perform it -- when you work on a new play you sometimes have to learn all about a new subject. As long as I keep learning, I'll be very happy. For instance, for this latest play I am learning all about the sea (a favourite subject of mine), the moon and stars, tides, sailing, confined spaces, solitude. It is stimulating and I often get to work with people I find very inspiring."

Scottish audiences saw some of Alyth's finest ever dramatic and singing performances during 2003's Celtic Connections, and I asked if she planned to take more of her work to a wider audience. "I have already toured in England, Wales, mainland Europe and beyond. I am lucky to be able do this and will continue to do so as long as I am asked," she said. "Later this year I will be touring in Italy and England. I'll be also be working with Welsh, Canadian and Irish singers as part if a project for the Hebridean Celtic Festival. I have just returned from Brazil, where I worked on a fantastic project, Gaelic songs in Brazil -- they loved it! We are working at the moment to bring that project back to Scotland in December.

"I consider myself very fortunate to do all these things and am pleased that Scottish and Gaelic culture have such appeal to a worldwide audience."

Alyth received extremely good reviews of one Celtic Connections performance in particular -- The New Voices commission in 2002. In this musical commission, which she premiered at the festival, she shares her own deeply personal experiences of life on the Isle of Lewis with the audience, interspersing her narrative with Hebridean songs.

"When I began to work on my commission I came home to Lewis for some inspiration. (I always feel "whole" in Lewis, and when I leave the island I always leave part of me behind). I started recording people's stories about Lewis, crofting, weaving, things I remembered as a child but wanted other people's views on them and how they had changed," Alyth said. "Also when I was at college I came across people (including lecturers) who thought I (growing up in Lewis) would have missed out on things; that always amazed me. I suppose I wanted the commission to show people that I loved growing up in Lewis, and that although living on an island can be hard, it gave me a good grounding for life. It was very personal but I thoroughly enjoyed putting the project together, chatting to folk and learning some of the recent history about my Island.

"I don't mind being away from Lewis and can live with missing it but it is nice to come home."

Alyth has recorded just one solo album to date, titled An Iomall/The Edge. "I've been working on a second solo CD since the last one was released!" she said. "I'm always looking for new songs. I really like working with the core unit I now have of piano, fiddle, double bass and voice, and that will be the basis of the album. I am hoping to start recording tracks this summer but don't imagine the album will be out 'til next year. I enjoy sparse arrangements that let the songs breath but I am sure there will be one or two of my favourite musicians as guests."

In addition to her solo project, Alyth has also recorded a Scottish fusion album with Sunhoney -- funky, dance-based tunes with a much more laid back and contemporary vocal style -- and she sings in English! Discussing whether Sunhoney was a continuing project, Alyth replied, "Yes, it is difficult to get us all free at the same time as we are all in other bands, but we are doing a few big festivals this year including Towersey, which we are looking forward to. It's quite a different style for me but I love singing for dancing audiences. We've also added some Gaelic songs to the set and they go down a storm."

If any reader has listened to Alyth's solo album, they'd understand why I wanted to know what made her arrive at such a radical approach to her interpretation of traditional Gaelic song. The songs on An Iomall are incredibly up front, with sparse musical accompaniment -- songs like "O Mo Dhuthaich" and "Bothan" seem to find their own rhythm and strength in her vocals. I found a very similar approach on the superb Shine trio's album, Sugarcane, which she recorded with Corrina Hewat and Mary MacMaster.

"When I first went into the studio, I probably had more ideas of how I didn't want to record the album," Alyth recalled. "At college I was drawn to the works of 20th-century composers, and they used riffs to create intensity, which I found very effective. A lot of Gaelic songs are modal and don't fit into conventional key signatures, so we worked with riff based ideas as this lets the song move freely and just gives it a little support. Davey Trouton (pianist) was instrumental in developing this idea. Jim Sutherland also felt my voice should carry the bulk of the interpretation as we talked a lot about the story of the songs."

I was rather disappointed to learn that no further programmes were planned for the Scottish Ceol Tacsi television series, which Alyth appeared in. "Ceol Tacsi was a great series but sadly is no longer on the go. It was a wonderful opportunity to work with some of your favourite musicians. It was great too when it was recorded up in Moray, as it was away from everything and all the musicians were staying and working together. Many a late night was had."

Alyth's work invariably takes her away from Lewis, her homeland (her love for the island positively shouts at anyone who's observed the diversity of her work. Asking whether she still managed to spend a lot of time on Lewis, she replied: "Sadly, no, I don't get home as much as I'd like but that makes it all the more fun once I do."

Not many would disagree with the notion that landscape inspires so many of the arts -- music, drama, poetry, even jewelery designs inspired by the machair (a Gaelic word meaning fertile low lying grassy plain). Alyth told me about her favourite places on Lewis, places that she liked to turn to for relaxation or artistic inspiration: "I love the croft and village I grew up in North Street, Sandwick for all its memories and comfort, but one of my favourite places is Traigh Mhor in Tolsta -- the big beach, glorious on a sunny day when you are the only one there, but great too in the wind and rain for a walk. Clears the cobwebs."

We moved to a subject that interests many in the United Kingdom -- the state of the country's minority languages. I thought that the recent UK Census gave out confusing signals about the state of the Gaelic language in the country, and I asked Alyth what she thought of the language revival in mainland Scotland, with, for example, the recent emergence of Gaelic primary schools and increased production of Gaelic television programmes. Her reply was unequivocal: "Long may it continue."

"I think children growing up with the opportunity of two languages is very beneficial to them, no matter what the languages are. The problem with Gaelic medium in the city, however, is will the children continue with the language once they have left school? But giving them the opportunity to learn the language of their parents or grandparents is a wonderful thing; it will help them understand themselves.

"I think some Gaelic programmes have had bad press, this I understand as some are not up to standard, funding being spread thin instead of funding one or two projects -- several appear and are then repeated; but with more people from the Gaelic culture/background being trained for TV and radio shows things are improving and will continue to do so. I think Gruth is Uachdar is one of the best television productions ever." (Anyone fortunate enough to have seen this first rate BBC Alba production would not disagree with those sentiments).

Alyth then told me about the music she enjoyed listening to in her own spare time.

"Growing up in Lewis, I listened to anything from the local traditional Gaelic singers to pop music and classical music. Then when I went on to college I discovered the 20th-century composers, which I loved -- Steve Reich, Philip Glass and especially John Adams. I love the minimal approach, and as I said it influences my own arrangements.

"Singers I love are Glasgow-born Eddi Reader for her beautiful voice and ability to use it -- especially her Mirmara album. June Tabor for her strength in telling the story of a song, and in particular her arrangements on her album Aleyn. Spanish singer Uxia, who has a wonderful album called Estou Vivendo No Ceo -- I am living in Heaven. Since she first appeared with the Eurythmics and ever since then the wonderful Annie Lennox. I like Kurt Weill, Keith Jarret, Norma Waterson, Eliza Carthy, Blazin' Fiddles for their amazing energy, Vasen, Asylum Street Spankers, Swap, Karen Tweed's May Monday, big choral pieces like Vaughan Williams' 'Sancta Civitas,' Elgar's 'Enigma Variations,' Nimrod at full blast, definitely U2 and recently Coldplay."

As a longstanding admirer of Scottish Gaelic song and culture, I found Alyth's replies both intriguing and insightful!

[ visit Alyth McCormack's website ]