Performing at Partick Folk Festival 2011

"Heather Heywood is widely regarded as a 'singers singer' and has earned the respect of many of the UK's top performers, most regarding her as among the very best of the current generation of Scotland's traditional singers."

All good folk musicians re-interpret their material in the light of their own experience and time and they make it their own. Heather Heywood, from Ayrshire, unquestionably has a rare and beautiful voice, but what distinguishes her singing from many other lovely voices is a quite exceptional depth of understanding about the material - new as well as old. Heather's interpretative powers have been well known in her native Scotland for many years. Best known for her interpretation of traditional songs, her repertoire is wide with the bulk of her material coming from the Scottish tradition.

It's a long way from performing songs at family parties to national concert platforms and recording studios, and to a reputation in Scottish traditional music that places her amongst the 'Greats'. But that has been Heather Heywood's journey, which she's made unassumingly, not having planned it, nor even quite believing it's happened either. It has, though, for hers is a voice which leads people like Ian Green of Greentrax to call her one of the finest singers of the last three decades. Beryl Marriott, comparing her with Jeannie Robertson said: "Heather has an impact on people in a way that other special singers like Jeanne Robertson or Lizzie Higgins had. It is not just the voice - it is something else that comes over. She moves people."

Heather is modest about her own talents, a modesty that in the opinion of Beryl Marriot is shared by many other traditional musicians "I can understand Heather's reticence and her reluctance to accept the praise she is given. She's not trying to impress her personality on others, but attempting to reveal the truth she believes in, behind the song she's singing. If it is a surprise to her that she's so successful at doing just that, she should know that it has been the hallmark of all the great folk artists I've known."

Alastair Clark, of The Scotsman newspaper, referred to Heather as the 'Mistress of the muckle sang". He, like many others, pointed out the value of Heather's work as a role model for younger performers. "Every budding singer should have this album as a model lesson in the handling and delivery of the big ballads, all of which are unfolded with stunning clarity and beauty."

Recordings

• Lassie Fair and Laddies Braw, The Tradition Bearers, 2002, LTCD1007
• By Yon Castle Wa', Greentrax Recordings, 1993, CDTRAX054
• Some King of Love, Greentrax Recordings, 1987, CDTRAX010
• Plus various compilations including Scots Women, Greentrax Recordings, CDTRAX213D.