FOR a folk singer, there can be few more inspiring places to grow up than Dumfries, once the home of poet Robert Burns.

Emily Smith, BBC Radio Scotland’s 2002 winner of the Young Traditional Music of the Year Award, thinks so.

In 2009, with husband Jamie McLellan, who plays guitar for her, she recorded an album celebrating the 250th anniversary of the poet’s birth.

The 29-year-old says she only has to look out of the window to find inspiration.

“It’s a beautiful landscape,” she says. “It’s easy to see how it inspired Burns and a lot of other poets.

"I studied Burns a lot at school and got a bit sick of him to be honest, but I have grown to love him again.”

While Emily’s earlier albums, the Burns tribute Adoon Winding Nith, A Day Like Today, A Different Life and Too Long Away, were steadfastly written while at home, her latest, Traveller’s Joy, was penned while out on the road touring.

A mixture of self-penned and traditional songs, the album has received rave reviews.

Emily is particularly looking forward to playing the new songs at The Met in Bury.

“It’s a really lovely little venue,” she says. “We’ve had some good crowds, so hopefully they’ll want to come back to hear the new songs.”

* Emily Smith plays The Met in Bury on Friday, February 25, £12, call 0161 761 2216; then Rose Theatre, Ormskirk, Saturday, February 26.