FIONA ROSS grew up in Partick, in the west end of Glasgow, also spending time at her family home in North Tolsta on the Isle of Lewis during her teenage years. The youngest of a busy household of five children, she inherited a love of Scottish music from her dad, and soon began singing popular Scottish songs. In the 1980s that Fiona truly embraced the Scots song tradition, immersing herself in Edinburgh’s vibrant folk scene and serving her apprenticeship in the local folk clubs and busy pub singing sessions. She then joined the group Handsel with Scottish folk scene stalwarts Brian Miller, Gavin Livingstone and fiddler Anna-Wendy Stevenson (later Sharon Hassan), performing at traditional music festivals around the country.
Eventually, as with so many Scots before, Fiona left for Australia (2009) where, now living in Melbourne, she has continued to develop into a well recognised tradition-bearer of Scots song. Fiona’s honest, earthy & evocative singing style and extensive repertoire showcases the richness & diversity of the tradition.
Fiona was a finalist for Scots Singer of the Year in Scotland’s prestigious Trad Music Awards of 2019. Her most recent album “Sunwise Turn” won Music Victoria’s Best Folk Album award 2020 and was a finalist for Traditional Album of the Year in the Australian Folk Music Awards 2021.
Scottish Traditional Music Hall of Fame inductee CHRISTINE KYDD is one of Scotland’s leading, award-winning singer/ songwriters. With eclectic tastes, she is best known for her treatment of traditional and contemporary songs. Her solo set is as likely to include self-penned songs as the work of Marra, Springsteen, Hulett, Wellington, McVicar, Jacob, Tannahill and Reid.
Christine also sings the songs of Robert Burns, and features on several volumes of Linn Records collection The Complete Songs of Robert Burns. As a Burness from North East Scotland, she has family connections to Robert Burns’s family tree.
A singer of traditional songs and ballads, she is an international traditionalist, her choice of songs rich and varied, but with a focus on the song culture of Scotland. A highly-regarded educator, theatre performer and vocal coach, she recently graduated with a Master’s degree in Ethnology and Folklore.
She has toured, broadcast and recorded extensively both solo and on a number of projects to produce some of the country’s finest and often award-winning sounds, including singing with Janet Russell, Chantan, Calluna and Sinsheen.
Her most recent CD Shift & Change (above) on Greentrax Recordings brings together the cream of Scotland’s musicians and singers- Andy Shanks, Innes Watson, Fraser Speirs, Gillian Frame and musician/producer/engineer Angus Lyon.