Siobhan Miller

SCOTLAND

Siobhan Miller is a Scottish folk singer and songwriter. Her soulful and stirring renewal of traditional song has won her the 2018 BBC Radio 2 Folk Award for Best Traditional Track, and BBC Alba Scots Singer of the Year an unprecedented three times. This year she releases her fourth solo album despite only having started her solo career five years ago. It that time she has gained a huge following and in 2019 alone she received one million plays on streaming service Spotify. Her first three releases were all nominated for BBC Alba Scots Trad Award Album of the Year and showcase her remarkable depth of talent from original contemporary material to traditional Scottish folk songs.

Born in Penicuik, Scotland, Siobhan Miller grew up in the folk scene singing at festivals she attended with her parents from a young age. Growing up in a musical family, Siobhan Miller made her singing debut at the Auchtermuchty Festival when she was 13 years old winning both the children’s and women’s competitions. Continuing to sing, learn songs and develop her music she formed a strong partnership with Orcadian musician Jeana Leslie. Together they won the 2008 BBC Radio 2 Young Folk Award. After two albums in partnership with Jeana (2008’s In A Bleeze and 2010’s Shadows Tall), Siobhan graduated from Glasgow’s RSAMD with a 1st Class Honours degree in Scottish traditional music. She then joined Salt House, a group with the finely matched abilities of Lauren MacColl, Ewan MacPherson and Euan Burton. Their album Lay Your Dark Low was released in 2014 heralded as “seamless” by The Guardian.

In 2015 Siobhan released her first solo album and her career as a solo artist took off touring internationally with her band. She has been a regular performer at Glasgow’s Celtic Connections where she was Artistic Director for the 2016 opening concert and even played a role and sang in Season One of US/UK Drama ‘Outlander. Her talent for theatre has also been on display with a recent month long run of ‘A Christmas Celtic Sojourn’ in Boston’s Majestic Theatre and a season on Broadway with Mabou Mine’s production of ‘Peter and Wendy’. She has also toured widely supporting and singing with Eddi Reader with whom she has formed a close musical bond and they have since made guest appearances on each other’s albums.

2020 marks the release of her fourth solo album ‘All Is Not Forgotten’, a return to her acoustic roots that combines the traditional songs she loves with new original material. It show’s Miller developing many of the ideas from previous releases Mercury (2018), Strata (2017) and Flight of Time (2015) which highlighted her extensive range through traditional, contemporary and self-penned material, as well as her “delicate, nourishing vocals and lyrically rich compositions” (The List).

Following her well-received debut Flight of Time, produced by James Grant of Love and Money, her hotly-anticipated follow-up Strata consisted of eleven carefully chosen songs that Miller grew up listening to and performing in her youth and showcased the many influences on her formative musical years. Her third release as a solo artist Mercury was her first album of entirely original material and it proved to be a showcase from Miller’s growing talents as a writer. ‘All Is Not Forgotten’ features many of her frequent collaborators including Kris Drever, Euan Burton, Innes White, John Lowrie and Megan Henderson.