Julie Fowlis - New Squidoo Lens

After spending so much time revising existing Squidoo lenses, I've finally created a new one and it's in my Celtic Music series. Julie Fowlis is a singer from North Uist, one of the Hebridean islands west of Skye, off the coast of Scotland. She sings mostly in Scots Gaelic, a language still spoken by about 60,000 people, or about one percent of the population of Scotland. She's been a member of the Scottish traditional group Dòchas since 2000. They've won several awards, and so has Julie. She's won Gaelic Singer of the Year award twice at the Scots Trad Music Awards (2005 and 2008), Her second album, Cuilidh, won an award as well.

I've been rethinking the idea of creating video showcases for Celtic performers. They're interesting to put together, but even though my Celtic Music: Lenses lens has been getting some visitors, they don't seem to be looking at the video showcases, most of which are languishing near the bottom of my lenses in my listing. So for Julie's lens, I put more videos in it.

There's a very well-done video of Julie talking about her music and influences, with some singing and lots of scenic shots from her home island. So I kept the text relatively short and put that video near the top of the lens. I knew I'd much rather watch her and listen to her wonderful voice and great Scots accent than read a whole bunch of plain old text, so I figure other people would want that as well.

Five more videos alternate with other modules. All of the videos are of professional quality. There were more videos available, but many of them didn't have great sound. They'd probably be OK for someone who's seen Julie perform live or is familiar with her CDs, but I don't think they make a good introduction for someone unfamiliar with her and her music.

I played around a bit on this lens, adding some colored drop caps, then I went through my Celtic Music: Lenses lens and added a drop cap to each performer's module as well. They're even color-coded: green for Irish, blue for Scottish, and red for performers who are just generally Celtic.