Emily Smith - Too Long Away

Scots Singer Of The Year - Scots Trad Music Awards 2008

(April 2008) 10 tracks (42 mins): Sunset Hymn * Caledonia * Audience Of Souls * As I Was A Wand'ring * May Colven * The Mermaid Of Galloway * The Bleacher Lassie o' Kelvinhaugh * Come Home Pretty Bird * Old Mortality * Winter Song

Emily Smith has become established as one of Scotland’s finest young folk musicians. This, her third album, is where the mix of traditional material and her own original songs strikes the perfect balance. She is backed on this recording by a small but thoughtful group of musicians who add fiddle, guitar, double bass and percussion.

Emily is blessed with a beautifully clear and passionate voice, with a lovely Scottish lilt, and is also an excellent piano and accordion player. Raised in rural Dumfriesshire in the South West of Scotland, she has always held a passion for local history and a keen sense of belonging, which shines through in her music and the enthusiasm she displays when talking of her home region. Many of the traditional ballads in her repertoire are sourced in Dumfriesshire.

Since becoming BBC Young Traditional Musician of the Year in 2002, and with an Honours degree in Scottish Music from the RSAMD, Emily has also been nominated for Up And Coming Artist Of The Year (STMA 2003) and Scots Singer Of The Year (STMA 2005). She became the first ever winner from Scotland in the USA Songwriting Competition in 2005, after winning the folk section with her song Edward Of Morton - another of her songs, Always A Smile, was shortlisted in the final ten.



"Dumfries and Galloway is often a forgotten part of Scotland and through my material, whether traditional or my own songs, I try to portray the beauty and diversity of where I come from. I love being able to sing a song and picture the exact setting of where the event took place, or to sing some of Robert Burns’ material and know that he travelled the same roads and admired the same landscapes as I do today." (Emily Smith)