Emily Smith (born 25 May 1981) is a Scottish

folk Folk or Folks may refer to: Sociology *Nation *People * Folklore ** Folk art ** Folk dance ** Folk hero ** Folk music *** Folk metal *** Folk punk *** Folk rock ** Folk religion * Folk taxonomy Arts, entertainment, and media * Folk Plus or Fol ...

singer from

Dumfries and Galloway Dumfries and Galloway ( sco, Dumfries an Gallowa; gd, Dùn Phrìs is Gall-Ghaidhealaibh) is one of 32 unitary council areas of Scotland and is located in the western Southern Uplands. It covers the counties of Scotland, historic counties of ...

. She went to school at Wallace Hall and has a degree in

Scottish music Scotland is internationally known for its traditional music, which remained vibrant throughout the 20th century and into the 21st, when many traditional forms worldwide lost popularity to pop music. In spite of emigration and a well-developed con ...

from The Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama. She is married to

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

-born

fiddle A fiddle is a bowed string musical instrument, most often a violin. It is a colloquial term for the violin, used by players in all genres, including classical music. Although in many cases violins and fiddles are essentially synonymous, th ...

player and

guitarist A guitarist (or a guitar player) is a person who plays the guitar. Guitarists may play a variety of guitar family instruments such as classical guitars, acoustic guitars, electric guitars, and bass guitars. Some guitarists accompany themselv ...

Jamie McClennan.Scotland's Joni Mitchell
Retrieved on 13 February 2011.

Early life

Emily's childhood was spent dancing to music, rather than performing it, in her mother's dance school. She grew up assuming everyone knew how to do a highland fling and weekends were spent dancing at ceilidhs rather than nightclubs. Aged seven she started out on piano; moved onto snare drum in the local pipe band and subsequently found a passion for piano accordion, where at the age of eighteen she was National Mod champion. But it wasn't until a solo with the school choir in her late teens that Emily discovered her singing voice. She moved to Glasgow in 1999 where she gained an Honours degree in Scottish Music from the

Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama The Royal Conservatoire of Scotland ( gd, Conservatoire Rìoghail na h-Alba), formerly the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama ( gd, Acadamaidh Rìoghail Ciùil is Dràma na h-Alba) is a conservatoire of dance, drama, music, production, and ...

. With principal study of Scots Song, she also studied accordion and piano.

Discography

Solo albums

* ''A Day Like Today'' (2002) * ''A Different Life'' (2005) * ''Too Long Away'' (2008) * ''Adoon Winding Nith'' with Jamie McClennan (2009) * ''Traiveller's Joy'' (2011) * ''Ten Years'' (2013) * ''A Winters Night – EP'' (2014) * ''Echoes'' (2014) * ''Songs for Christmas'' (2016)

Collaborations and guest appearances

* '' Faultlines'' –

Karine Polwart Karine Polwart ( ) (born 23 December 1970) is a Scottish singer-songwriter. She writes and performs music with a strong folk and roots feel, her songs dealing with a variety of issues from alcoholism to genocide. She has been most recognised fo ...

(2003) * ''

Darwin Song Project ''Darwin Song Project'' is a compilation album, released on 7 September 2009. It features folk artists from the UK and North America, who were tasked with the creation of new songs that had a "resonance and relevance to Charles Darwin". The ar ...

'' – Various Artists (March 2009) * ''

Transatlantic Sessions Transatlantic Sessions is the collective title for a series of musical productions by Glasgow-based Pelicula Films Ltd, funded by- and produced for BBC Scotland, BBC Four and RTÉ of Ireland. The productions comprise collaborative live performan ...

4'' (October 2009) * ''Adoon Winding Nith'' – with Jamie McClennan (November 2009) * ''

Sweet Visitor ''Sweet Visitor'' is an album by the English singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Nancy Kerr, which was released by Little Dish Records in 2014. Allmusic Review: ''Sweet Visitor''accessed 1 March 2015. Reception In a review of ''Sweet Vis ...

'' –

Nancy Kerr Nancy Kerr (born 1975) is an English folk musician and songwriter, specialising in the fiddle and singing. She is a Principal Lecturer in Folk Music at Leeds Conservatoire and Newcastle University. She was the 2015 BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards "Folk ...

(2014) * ''Unplugged'' – Smith & McClennan (2018) * ''Small Town Stories'' – Smith & McClennan (2020)

TV appearances

Recent TV appearances include:Emily Smith > Biography
. Retrieved on 21 September 2011. * BBC Songs of Praise *

4 * Scotland's

Hogmanay Live ''BBC Scotland's Hogmanay'' is BBC Scotland BBC Scotland (Scottish Gaelic: ''BBC Alba'') is a division of the BBC and the main public broadcaster in Scotland. It is one of the four BBC national regions, together with the BBC English R ...

(broadcast live from

Glasgow Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated popul ...

)

Awards

BBC Radio Scotland Young Traditional Musician The BBC Radio Scotland Young Traditional Musician competition has run annually since 2001. It exists to encourage young musicians to keep their tradition alive and to provide performance opportunities, tools and advice to help contestants make ...

award (2002) *

Scots Trad Music Awards The Scots Trad Music Awards or Na Trads were founded in 2003 by Simon Thoumire to celebrate Scotland's traditional music in all its forms and create a high profile opportunity to bring the music and music industry into the spotlight of media and ...

: Scots Singer of the Year (2008)

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Smith, Emily Living people Scottish folk singers People from Thornhill, Dumfries and Galloway Place of birth missing (living people) People educated at Wallace Hall Academy 1981 births 21st-century Scottish singers