“...a quite incredible talent... audience stunned into silence ... a star
is born .... a breathtaking talent…”
- Davy Gardner, The Shetland Times, 2001.
“ the Mulherns demonstrate what a powerful and effective medium the vocal and guitar duo can be.”
- Edinburgh Rush Festival 2005
“…easily the most astonishing performance I saw the whole year”
- John Robertson, The Shetland Times, 2004.
“ [In a] beguiling ... voice loaded with vibrato you might discern traces
of Joni Mitchell, Alaskan singer Jewel and perhaps one of those big-voiced pop-soul
stars of the Mariah & Whitney school.”
- John Robertson, The Shetland Times, 2004
“Shetland's Katie Melua...”
- Tom Morton, The Shetland Times, 2004
“IF YOU haven't heard of her yet you can bet your buttocks you soon will, 30 seconds on stage is enough to confirm that Ellie Mulhern has the makings of a star.
Those at Mooney's Wake last Thursday know they witnessed something a bit special. Seminal gig, some said. Well maybe. Enthralling and exciting certainly and you can only wonder how far her talent will take her.
It was a gig her friends and fans had been waiting for for months, such was the stir created by previous impromptu singsongs when she quite literally stunned people into silence.
The Mulherns live south now and Ellie had been due to appear at this year's folk festival. Sadly her granny died and what we got instead was copies of her rough-and-ready demo EP which, although labouring under a wobbly, low-fi, DIY production, still proved entrancing.
On Thursday she finally made it to the stage in Shetland. She's still just a teenager and some may remember her as a schoolgirl singing in formal concerts, but she's fairly blossomed.
Mooney's is finding a new niche for itself as an intimate venue for showcasing the best of the local acts. In fact, suddenly it's an exciting time musically in the town. We're getting an all-singin', all-dancin' swanky music venue, we just had a blues fest and there is a huge rock one later this month; The North Star has risen from its seemingly terminal slumbers and there is still another nightclub to come at the foot of Harbour Street.
For Ellie, the top floor of Mooney's was packed to the rafters with, it seemed, the more discerning class of punter.
At the risk of copping a buffeting from feminists out there it has to be acknowledged that she is a complete babe, which of course will help massively in the music biz.
Yep, so there was more than the odd tongue hanging out as Ellie stepped up to the mike; tall, leggy, flowing black mane and dressed to kill in skimpy top and short skirt.
Then she sang her heart out, her voice mesmeric, high and delicate, swirling with vibrato and, after a while, perhaps a few too many oohs and aahs.
She sounds not unlike Jewel on her first album, sensuous yet vulnerable, with shades of early Joni Mitchell too. But she's no copycat.
Her choice of covers to add variety to the set was impeccable, Jeff Buckley and Alison Krauss among others, but it was with on own songs that she excelled.
Coward, Deny It and the best of all, If You Want Me, are strong songs from her demo EP. Whatever she sang met with thumping applause, quite something for a new act fighting to cut through the fug of a boozy Thursday night in a Lerwick bar.
So she's got the moves, the charm, the poise, the songs, the voice. She's got it all...except the bits provided by brother Andrew, by contrast the quiet, absorbed, slick musical dynamo, happy to let his sister take the limelight while he, without fuss or flaw fashions some superb, flowing acoustic guitar.
Ellie plays piano and guitar too and perhaps the most surprising aspect of the night is how effortless the whole performance looks for the two of them.
Unfortunately, we Shetlanders are guilty of turning up on nights like this as much for the buzz as the performance, which means way too much blether and too little respect. Some who were there probably didn't hear a single note.
For them and the rest who missed the gig there is some good news you can all have a piece of Ellie very soon. Marvin Smith and Alan McLeod at Bleatbeat Records are to release a three-track single hopefully in the next few weeks, having recorded a portion of her live set and a couple of studio tracks at the weekend, including the classy If You Want Me and the less-convincing Nick's Song.
As I write, Jillian Isbister has just come on BBC Radio Scotland singing Imagine and Shoormal were in full flow when I switched the radio on. Astrid Williamson also got a namecheck. After so many years whingeing about the lack of seriously good singers and original songwriters in Shetland (while Sheila Henderson and one or two others kept the flag flying), suddenly we have an embarrassment of riches and they're starting to get noticed. Exciting times indeed.”
- John Robertson. The Shetland Times, 16th July, 2004.
“
ELLIE gigs in Mooney's Wake have become great occasions for her slim but devoted band of followers to gather beneath the rafters to listen.
Last week she conquered the noisy pub twice with brother Andrew, confirming her status as the possessor of Shetland's most athletic voice.
Later this month the pair will be up from Aberdeen again to play to probably their biggest crowd yet as support for Steve Earle's sister, Stacey, at the Lerwick British Legion. That should be a whole new critical, attentive audience who will appreciate her unusual talent.
In the meantime, if you haven't yet been introduced, you can buy her first single, Ellie EP. More than half the 200 limited-edition discs are still available, on sale now from Clive's Record Shop or from the website of Shetland-based record label Bleatbeat at www.bleatbeat.co.uk.
The three tracks were recorded in Mooney's in July by Marvin Smith, one live and the others in "studio" fashion, although without all the extravagant multi-tracking, mastering and assorted fakery that come as standard on your music these days. She doesn't need all that and an uncluttered mix leaves plenty space for her sports car of a voice to swoop and soar.
Some who perhaps think Dido or Britney are real singers will find Ellie's vibrato and luxurious oohs and aahs to be a bit too much, too histrionic. She would indeed struggle to plug into the teenie market. Hers is a voice for the more musically seasoned listener, not those swayed by the latest must-have ear candy.
None of the pair's songs stray far into commercial pop territory, unlike those of another classy Shetland singer-songwriter, Astrid Williamson.
Ellie provides her own near-supersonic harmonies over Andrew's insistent acoustic guitar on So if You Want Me, one of her strongest songs, and the slower Nick's Song. Both previously appeared on their rough self-recorded demo Quintessence.
Nick's Song is embellished with some tasteful fiddle from Andrew Gifford of Fiddlers' Bid.
On the stark I Know, Ellie sings and plays live, unaccompanied and unadorned in a manner so reminiscent of Jewel that it could have come straight off the Alaskan's debut album Pieces of You.
Live, the set of songs written by Ellie and Andrew is peppered liberally with covers, the best of which last Thursday were from Eddie Reader and Jeff Buckley, although a rendition of the obscure Neil Young song World on a String also appeared.
Mind you, Ellie's cover songs are not sing-alongs and perhaps one of the barriers to her gaining wide appeal is going to be that it takes a special voice to be able to copy her. Like Jeff Buckley or Joni Mitchell, Ellie orbits in an entirely different sphere of sound.“
- John Robertson. The Shetland Times, 10th September, 2004.