The Living Tradition
May 2008

Not the most prolific of Scottish artistes (three albums in six years): this has certainly been worth the wait, as she’s becoming one of Scotland’s most eloquent of songsmiths since winning BBC Young Traditional Musician of the year in 2002. And Emily has a delightful voice. Her arrangements of Burns and trad. Songs are sublime, in partnership with fiddler (and co-producer, occasional guitarist, oh and designer of her excellent website!) Jamie McClennan. The three totally self-penned songs demonstrate that she has finally matured into a confident and captivating writer whose songs deserve respect. I fully expect each and every one to be covered by her contemporaries- nut it’s the classic delivery of May Colvin that stands out as the real gem here with The Bleacher Lassie o’ Kelvinhaugh (a Scottish interpretation of the Claudy Banks ballad) running it a close second. Her take on Tony Cuffe’s Caledonia, a song I for one doubted anybody else could touch, also merits credit. Ross Milligan provides sensitive guitar (and occasional banjo) backing throughout. The obscure Burns offering (As I was a Wand’ring) deserves a wider audience, and I’m sure it will be a popular request this summer. In departure from her previous two outings, there are no sets of tunes here, which is slightly disappointing, but if you like Scots ballads this is a cracker. This easily the best album of new material I’ve listened to this year, and to paraphrase Emily’s Sunset Hymn, ‘my senses reel as I fall into the sound’.
Grem Devlin