Siobhan Miller, one of the most captivating and successful singer songwriters to come out of Scotland in recent years, will release her fourth solo studio album in April and showcase it on a UK tour.
Siobhan, with her soulful, burnished gold voice, has won the MG Alba Scots Trad Music Awards ‘Singer of the Year’ title an unprecedented three times alongside a 2018 BBC Radio 2 Folk Award.
In just a few short years, the multi-talented Midlothian-born performer, who won the 2008 Radio 2 Young Folk Award with Orcadian fiddler Jeana Leslie, has released three strong solo albums and, in another tangent of her career, appeared in TV drama series Outlander and sung in U.S. theatre productions on Broadway (Peter and Wendy) and in Boston (A Christmas Celtic Sojourn).
Following on from the slickly produced, mainstream-nudging 2018 album Mercury, this new release is a more stripped back affair, seeing Miller return to her roots. And where Mercury fielded all original songs All is Not Forgotten magically melds new and traditional songs in nine tracks with an overriding air of unrushed calm peppered with a touch of fun in the final tracks.
Siobhan is joined on the album by some of the Scottish folk scene’s finest musicians – Orcadian singer/guitarist Kris Drever (Lau), fiddler Megan Henderson (Breabach), Innes White on acoustic guitar, Euan Burton on double bass, John Lowrie on piano and Kim Carnie on backing vocals.
The original songs often see Siobhan co-writing with long term collaborators Drever and husband Burton.
Produced by the team of Miller, Burton, Drever and Iain Hutchison the album was recorded at Gloworm Studio in Glasgow.
Says Siobhan: “After releasing
Mercury I really wanted to create something reflective of our live shows, mixing original songs with new arrangements of traditional songs I’ve learned and making it as raw and honest as possible. We returned to Gloworm Studio and recorded the songs live together. It was such an enjoyable experience –possibly the most fun I’ve had recording with everyone reacting to each other’s performances and feeding off each other.”
Opening the album the title track is a beautifully delicate and reflective song by the Miller/ Drever/ Burton triumvirate. Almost poetic it is full of visual imagery and reminiscence like ‘a time capsule all hidden in words’ – everything from flowers to portraits to the sound of a cricket game and the grain of a table evoking precious memories.

Miller’s wistful voice gently tells this tale of remembrance before launching into the first of the traditional tracks, which also centres on the passage of time and those that have gone before. The slow air of May Morning Dew is simply arranged and meditative with Megan Henderson’s wonderfully expressive fiddle particularly noteworthy.
Miller and Drever share arrangement and vocal duties on Selkie – the traditional song better known as The Selkie of Suleskerry originating from Drever’s Orkney home ground. The story tells of a woman whose child is taken away by its father – here taking the shape of a Selkie, the mythical Scottish creature that morphs from a seal in water to a human on land. With wonderfully fused harmonies, it’s a beautifully judged performance; a mournful lullaby.
The much-recorded Loving Hannah is another melancholy-tinged traditional track. The tale of lost love has a simple stripped back arrangement by Miller and White of vocal and acoustic guitar which underlines the sadness – a complete contrast to the final traditional track on the album Tranent – a song that is literally close to home for Siobhan.
Named after the East Lothian town and also known as The Tranent Wedding and Up They Gaed-a-Gallopin’ it kicks over the traces with its fast tempo tale of the customary race after a country wedding (‘riding the broose’), where men saddle up to gallop to the bride’s new home to win the honour of having the first dance and kiss from the newly wed.
The rapid, tongue-twisting song of the racing blacksmith, tailor, weaver and shoemaker presents no problems to Miller who takes it all in her stride. She says: “Coming from Penicuik I’ve always been interested in songs from the area and this song from the nearby village of Tranent is the closest traditional song I’ve found to my home town.”
The original songs include the optimistic and uplifting Drever/Burton track Now You Need Me –with its catchy refrain and gently entwined strings and piano – and Burton’s dreamy, drifting I Won’t Let You Let Me Down whose hypnotic trajectory ends on a suspended, spellbinding note. One of the most personal songs on the album, it was written for Siobhan after their wedding in 2018.
The gentle ebb and flow continues in the ocean-bobbing While the Whole World Sleeps – a gorgeous song penned by Burton and Glasgow singer songwriter Findlay Napier, underpinned by Lowrie’s fluid piano and Henderson’s effortless fiddle.
Those who have heard Siobhan sing Adam McNaughtan’s clever, tongue- in-cheek song Cholesterol live at gigs and festivals will know what a

show stopper it is and here it gets a great end-of-album treatment, bound to bring a smile to the face of everyone but the health police!
Together with Tranent, it’s a juxtaposition to the rest of the release which through mellow new songs and old, emerges as an oasis of calm reflection.
Just five years after launching her solo career, Siobhan Miller demonstrates her ever escalating versatility in this latest album– whether penning thoughtful, original ballads or deftly demonstrating her skilled interpretation of a treasure trove of traditional folk songs.