Emily Smith – Echoes (2014)

For her fifth album Echoes, Emily Smith returns to her first love of traditional song. Marrying what Emily calls, “A new Scottish sound” with her gorgeous voice and her ability to connect with the subjects and stories at the heart of these 10 stunning new arrangements.
Joining multi-instrumentalists Jamie McClennan and Matheu Watson, bassist Ross Hamilton and percussionist Signy Jakobsdottir is an impressive guest list of Jerry Douglas, Aoife O’Donovan, Kris Drever, Tim Edey, Natalie Haas and Rory Butler. Together they’ve created an album with one foot planted firmly in Emily’s home of Dumfries and Galloway and the other in the unspoiled heartland of Nashville. If albums can have feet, that is.
Hidden amongst the traditional songs such as King Orfeo, Twa Sisters and My Darling Boy are a couple of notable covers including Darrell Scott’s exquisite The Open Door and Bill Caddick’s beautifully timeless John O’Dreams. With ten years of performing behind her, we can only hazard a guess at what’s in store for the next ten years.