A richly celebrated Scottish folk singer and songwriter, Siobhan Miller’s soulful and stirring renewal of traditional song has won her the BBC Radio 2 Folk Award for Best Traditional Track, and the BBC Alba Scots Trad Music Awards’ Scots Singer of the Year an unprecedented four times, whilst all five of her solo releases – including 2022’s acclaimed Bloom – have been shortlisted for BBC Alba STMA Album of the Year.
After two years without the fun, energy and community of festivals and sessions, Siobhan set about recapturing that life-affirming feeling within an album. An out and out, freewheeling celebration of much-loved Scottish songs, Bloom well and truly shakes off the shackles and burst out of darker times like a flower in the desert. Joyous and cathartic, it adds to the wide-ranging accolades and radio-play enjoyed throughout Siobhan’s solo career, balancing a love of traditional song with modern, at times almost pop, influences – much to the delight of live audiences.
Having grown up in Scotland’s rich folk scene, singing at festivals she attended with her parents from a young age, she made her debut at the Auchtermuchty Festival when she was just 13 years old – winning both the children’s and women’s competitions. That formative grounding in traditional music and festivals underpins her work today – whilst her extensive range and “delicate, nourishing vocals and lyrically rich compositions” (The List) consistently shine.
From Penicuik, Midlothian, and now based in Glasgow, Siobhan has been a regular performer at the city’s Celtic Connections festival, where she was Artistic Director for the 2016 Opening Concert and featured amidst the star-studded Transatlantic Sessions line-up in 2022, duetting with Paul Brady and Sarah Jarosz.
Alongside her extensive solo ventures, Siobhan’s unique vocal style has been honed through collaborations with many of Scotland’s top musicians – including Eddi Reader, with whom she has toured widely and formed a close musical bond. She has also made guest appearances with the National Theatre of Scotland, spent a season on Broadway, returned to the US for a monthlong residency in Boston’s Majestic Theatre for Brian O’Donovan’s Celtic Christmas Sojourn, and can be spotted on US/UK TV drama Outlander.