Kirsten Adamson

KIRSTEN ADAMSON comes from an historical musical background in Scotland. Born in 1985
in the town of Dunfermline, Fife, to Alexandra and Stuart Adamson.

EARLY YEARS
Alexandra, a champion highland dancer, inspired her to take part in dance classes and singing
lessons from a young age. She attended the Allana Brown School of Dance from age three and
took voice lessons with classical teacher Robin Gordon from age seven. Both teachers nurtured
her talents and by age ten Kirsten was cast in the leading role of 'Annie' in what would be the
first of many musical theatre performances.
Kirsten's father Stuart (songwriter and performer in bands The Skids, Big Country and The
Raphaels) was a huge inspiration to her throughout her childhood. He encouraged her to write
her own music in her early teens and introduced her to country music when he relocated to
Nashville in 1998. Kirsten would spend her summers in Tennessee and it was there where she
realised her voice naturally suited a country style.
Kirsten continued to gain experience through her teenage years performing with various musical
theatre companies in Fife, teaching herself guitar and studying tap and jazz dance.
DRIVING TO DAMASCUS
Kirsten’s first professional session came at age 13 when she was invited to perform backing
vocals on Big Country’s last album ‘Driving To Damascus’. It was released in 1999 as both a
standard edition and a limited edition digipack, and with bonus tracks in 2002. In the U.S., it was
released under a different name, John Wayne's Dream.
MY FAIR LADY
Kirsten performed with musical theatre companies for most of her teens embracing lead female
roles of Eliza in ‘My fair Lady’, Sally, ‘Me and My Girl’ and dancing in ‘West Side Story’ and
‘Oliver’. Her most recent musical theatre casting was the part of Adelaide Adams in Guys And
Dolls which ran at the Kings Theatre, Edinburgh in 2018.
FINDING HER OWN VOICE
Kirsten taught herself to play guitar at age 17 and began writing her own material at the same
time. As she crafted her songs she would record them on a Tascam Portastudio 4 track
cassette recorder. These recordings were eventually made digital and became the first tracks
she self-released on Myspace in 2005.
In 2006 Kirsten met Dave Burn during a recording session with her brother’s band AHAB in
London. She would go on to write the majority of her original material with him.
THE GILLYFLOWERS
At age 21 Kirsten moved to Edinburgh where she formed her first band The Gillyflowers, a
dynamic 7 piece country/rock outfit. They gathered momentum gigging in 2008, receiving many
5 star reviews for their live performances. They also released two physical EPs entitled ‘Queen
Of Hearts’ and ‘No Dancing’ but disbanded in 2013 before a full album was ever released.

SOLO WORK
Kirsten continued to write solo and collaborated with Dave Burn through 2012-2014 and by the

start of 2015 she had composed a full pop/rock album. She went on to release the eponymously
titled, crowdfunded album in November 2015 which was well received. She then toured the U.K
in 2016.
THE MARRIAGE
Approaching the end of 2016 she began to work more frequently with Dave Burn. Dave had
booked Kirsten to sing session vocals on his solo americana/country album, ‘Arizona’ and
Kirsten was delighted to dive back into a genre close to her heart. It was during these
recordings that Kirsten and Dave went on to create americana duo, 'The Marriage'.
In 2018 The Marriage released the single 'Live, Love, Cry' which was warmly received by the
BBC and many regional radio stations. They released their first full album ‘Imagining Sunsets’
on October 2nd 2020.
LET ME LIVE
When lockdown affected the U.K. in March of 2020 Kirsten started performing solo shows
online from her garden summerhouse. These shows gained traction rapidly and she was soon
performing to thousands of viewers around the world. ‘Let Me Live’, which is set to be released
later this year, was written on the 30th of April and played to her online listeners soon after.
Requests for the song to be played numerous times led to the full production and subsequent
release.
PATREON
Following the success of the livestreams Kirsten set up a members site through Patreon.com
where she hosts regular shows every Friday evening.