Siobhan Miller @ Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh, 12 May

Siobhan Miller is a Penicuik-born, Glasgow-based singer-songwriter and interpreter of traditional songs, as well as four-time winner of Best Singer at the Scots Trad Music Awards. Tonight she leads a crack group of musicians for the final gig of this year’s Edinburgh Tradfest at a packed Traverse Theatre. 

As a graduate of the Royal Conservatoire, backed by a team of musicians of similar pedigree, the musicianship on show is undeniably first rate. For the opening act of the show the supremely talented guitarist Innes White and fiddle player Charlie Stewart take to the stage to deliver some extremely impressive instrumentals, squeezing nuances out of their instruments that most players simply wouldn’t spot.

The duo are midway through a UK tour backing tonight’s headliner and soon the singer herself joins them for a knee slapping rendition of Ewan MacColl’s The Moving-On Song and then the incredibly sad Northern Isles ballad Selkie.

While Siobhan Miller’s music may not have the cutting-edge experimentalism or puckish spirit that has seen Richard Dawson, The Mary Wallopers and Lankum level up into mainstream success stories, she has more than proven her bonafides, comfortable sitting alongside populist acts like Tide Lines while also earning the respect of the guardians of folk music’s hand-me-down traditions.

Now joined by a drummer, bass player and pianist, Miller opens the main set with Queen of Argyll, the first of a series of tunes delivered with stylish aplomb and a warm and engaging stage presence. Tranent might be an impressive tongue twister of a song but Miller's way with words is equally apparent between tracks. In her own words, she loves a blether – telling tales from her childhood and sharing her joy in sharing some of these tunes with her own four-year-old child. 

From The Pound A Week Rise – Dick Gaughan’s tribute to colliery men – to Rab Noakes’ Open All Night which transforms into a passionate upbeat rocker with an impressive piano solo from Tom Gibbs, she has a knack for giving songs from within the folk tradition a contemporary spin. Of her own songs, Sorrow When The Day Is Done is probably the strongest, putting words from a letter from her elder sister into song form. The real showstopper comes when Miller, White and Stewart return to the trio format for a spectral version of Bonny Light Horseman, a tale of lost loves set during the Peninsular War.

From the familiar manner in which many attendees greet one another, to the effusive cheers for the show's organiser to Miller’s own recollections of learning songs from folk scene grandees, it’s clear that this music cultivates a sense of community and this is clearly something that has helped to forge Miller’s own musical identity, right down to Mercury, her own tribute to the passing down of songs.

Her final song of the night is the track that has become her calling card, a singalong version of The Rambling Rover, which has racked up more than eight million streams on Spotify alone. It’s an old song breathed full of new life and a perfect summation of an excellent evening.