Scottish Folk-inspired Singer/Songwriter and keys player
Scots Singer of the Year 2022, 2024, Scottish Traditional Music Awards
The Scotsman
Beth is one of the most inventive new artists brought up on the Scottish folk
scene.
Donald Shaw, Creative director of Celtic Connections, The Herald
Beths voice has a magical quality, stunning in its intensity and delightful in its
captivating warmth. This talent alone, rightly, brings her many fans. However, at
this years Edinburgh Tradfest (25) we were also blown away by the sheer
ingenuity of her song writing, her capabilities as an arranger of traditional songs,
and her ability to put together a measured and beautifully timed show.
Jane-Ann Purdy, co-producer Edinburgh Tradfest
Beth Malcolm brings passionate commitment to whatever she singsa glowing
future beckons. Jim Gilchrist, The Scotsman
I just discovered Beth Malcolms voice recentlyand was absolutely blown away
by her voice. Absolutely fantastic. Kathleen MacInnes, BBC Radio Scotland
Scots Singer of the Year
2022 and 2024, Beth
Malcolm has been
surrounded by Scottish folk
music from a very young
age. Beth was only four
years old when she first
took to the stage at
Kirriemuir Folk Festival to
screch out Ally Bally Bee,
and she has been
performing ever since.
A songwriter, piano player
and singer of stories, Beth
has established herself as
one of Scotlands most sought-after young artists. Beth was still early in her
career when she became an award-winning songwriter: winning Edinburgh
Folk Clubs yearly songwriting competition with her song Choose My
Company in her teens. A few years later, her song Leavin Loch Leven won
a national songwriting competition.
While she studied History in Glasgow, and then spent two years teaching
bairns at a High School outside Edinburgh, she took the leap to pursue her
music full-time in 2022. Beth released her debut album Kissed and Cried
shortly after, which received a 5★★★★★ review in The Scotsman: "Beth Malcolm
brings passionate commitment to whatever she sings... the album bursts with
warmth. Judging by this debut, a glowing future beckons."
Now officially in her quarter-life-crisis- era, Beth released her second album,
FOLKMOSIS in 2024. An autobiographical collection of self-penned and
traditional song, FOLKMOSIS is set in scene by spoken word. Not confined
by genre, Beth takes the listener through her early years, as she drives
through a songbook from Perth, her hometown, to the red fields of Angus, to
sing with her Granny. Next, the album sings of her angsty, heartfelt late
teenage years, and first experiences of the world beyond folk music. Finally,
the story culminates with a returning to the music of Scotland, and songs that
brought Beth home to the sounds of her childhood.
Performed live as a story, gigging FOLKMOSIS represents a seismic shift in
Beths creative life. Intrigued by the concept of gigging folk stories, she is
currently writing album number three, which will also incorporate oral histories
into her storytelling.
Outside of her solo work, Beth has collaborated with many performers,
including NITEWORKS and the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Adam
Holmes and most recently with electronic outfit LUSA. She has spent these
past years gigging around Scotland and the UK, and further afield to Europe
and the USA.
Whether singing auld Scottish song, writing new stories, or belting out Joni
Mitchell classics, Beth comes alive when she sings. Beth's music is not
confined to folk, but the traditional influences are strong, and Scotland, its
people and their relationships to each other, are her muse.