Nominees have been released for this year’s Scots Trad Music Awards, with a fantastic selection of Scottish traditional musicians, organisers, venues and events all in the running. Among the nominees are many past TradFest Edinburgh performers!

The shortlist for Album of the Year, one of the most hotly contested awards, features a whole host of past TradFest performers. Talisk, who played the closing night gig this year and are taking the traditional music scene by storm after winning the BBC Radio 2 Young Folk Award in 2015, have been nominated for their debut album  Abyss. Also nominated are Daimh, headline act at the opening night of TradFest, with their album The Hebridean Sessions. The lyrical Adam Holmes and the Embers are in the running with Brighter Still, as are Dallahan with Matter of Time, Jarlath Henderson’s debut solo album Hearts Broken, Heads Turned as well as his long-time musical companion Ross Ainslie and fellow musician Ali Hutton with SYMBIOSIS. Breabach, who performed at Teviot Row House in the 2014 festival, have picked up two nominations in Album of the Year for their new release Astar and also for Folk Band of the Year.

Hamish Napier, one half of fantastic duo Nae Plans who have performed at TradFest and the Storytelling Centre on a number of occasions has also picked up a nomination for his debut solo album The River and a futher nomination for Composer of the Year. Also nominated for composer of the year is Freeland Barbour, who was part of TradFest Edinburgh’s 2013 ‘Flowers of Edinburgh’ event and has published 3 books of compositions.

One of the highlights of this year’s TradFest was Mairi Campbell’s one-woman show Pulse, previously performed at Celtic Connections and subsequently for a a full Fringe run at Summerhall in August. Mairi won the award for Instrumentalist of the Year last year, and has this year been nominated in the Event of the Year category. Rachel Newton, solo artist who has also performed at TradFest as part of The Shee, is on the shortlist for Instrumentalist of the Year. We also welcome the Scots Radio Podcast’s nomination in the Trad Music in the Media category.

Greentrax Recordings sponsors the Live Act of the Year category, which sees both Niteworks, who closed off the opening night gig at The Caves this year, their first ever Edinburgh gig, and Skerryvore who played at The Caves in 2014, nominated. And finally, relatively new to the scene and nominated for Up and Coming Artist of the Year are Tannara, who also performed this year with The Lowground.

For more information, a full list of this year’s nominees and voting, click here.

TradFest Edinburgh will take place from Thursday 27 April – Sunday 7 May 2017, with event registration now open for submissions. Click here for more information.