Trad music award winners chosen

The sixth annual Scots Trad Music Awards has taken place in Glasgow, with 16 winners being picked from categories including Live Act of the Year and Album of the Year.

The aim of the awards, which took place at the Old Fruitmarket in Glasgow on Friday, 5 December, and Saturday, 6 December, is to celebrate Scotland's traditional music.

A highlights programme of the ceremony will be broadcast on BBC Alba [Sky 168, Freesat 110] on Monday, 8 December, starting at 2100 GMT.

A full list of the winners can be viewed by clicking onto the BBC's Scots Trad Music Awards site.

Here is a snapshot of some of the winners from the 2008 awards.

DUNCAN CHISHOLM: ALBUM OF THE YEAR

Duncan Chisholm's fiddle playing is said to be one of the most sensitive and beautiful sounds in traditional music.

Duncan Chisholm: Fiddle player

The Inverness-born 40-year-old took lessons in the fiddle at the age of eight and has not looked back.

He says: "It was in the village hall near Kirkhill that I first heard the sound of the fiddle. Donald Riddell and the Highland Strathspey and Reel Society were performing there in the spring of 1976. Everything changed that evening. I was spellbound with the sound of the fiddle and so in the autumn of 1976, once I had turned eight, Donald agreed to take me for a few lessons."

Duncan's winning album Farrar is his third.

KRIS DREVER: INSTRUMENTALIST OF THE YEAR

As well as a being a rising singing star, Kris Drever - the son of singer-songwriter Ivan Drever - is an inspired and inventive guitarist.

Kris Drever: Singer and guitarist

After temporarily switching instruments to the double bass, he subsequently returned to the guitar and began honing his style - a highly individual blend of rhythm and harmony, folk, jazz, rock and country inflections.

Kris, who finds himself in constant demand as a session player, is a member of acclaimed band Lau and the trio Drever, McCusker & Woomble.

He says: "A guitar's like a portable piano, in terms of its range. I like to try always to use interesting colours in the chords and harmonies I play, rather than just doing the obvious."

EMILY SMITH: SCOTS SINGER OF THE YEAR

Multi-award winning singer and songwriter Emily Smith has firmly established herself as one of Scotland's leading lights in folk music.

Emily Smith: Singer

Emily is an advocate for the music of her native Dumfries and Galloway.

She says: "I try to portray the beauty and diversity of where I come from.

"I love being able to sing a song and picture the exact setting of where the event took place, or to sing some of Robert Burns' material and know that he travelled the same roads and admired the same landscapes as I do today."

PEATBOG FAERIES: LIVE ACT OF THE YEAR

Formed in 1994, Skye's Peatbog Faeries now rank among the veterans of contemporary Celtic fusion with their signature sound of fiddle, pipes and whistles allied to electric guitar, bass keyboards and drums.

Peatbog Faeries: Nine-piece band

The Peatbogs have always had a large and varied musical palette to draw from, mixing reels and jigs with the colours and rhythms of rock, world and dance music, to headily powerful effect.

Since they added a three-piece brass section a couple of years ago, their sound has taken on several new dimensions.

The Peatbogs released their fifth album in the summer of 2007 and plan their first live release as well as their sixth studio album for 2009.

The 2008 Live Act of the Year Award is not the first time the band has won the accolade - they also bagged it in 2005.